Medical clinic in Milton Park closes after more than 40 years of service

One of the busiest medical clinics in Montreal closed its doors for good on Friday, after more than 40 years of service and leaving behind 40,000 active files.

Clinique Mdicale de la Cit, located at the corner of Park Avenue andLo PariseauStreet, had to close because it was unable to replace retiring doctors.

The clinic opened in 1976, and its closure leaves 12,000 patients without a family doctor.

Radio-Canada reports that five of the 10 family doctors working atla Citretired, and that they can't operate without replacing them.

Dr. Mark Roper,head of the primary care division at the McGill University Health Centre, told CBCNews thatthe provincial Health Ministry is not allocating enough permits for doctorsto practise on the island of Montreal.

He saidthe allocation of those permits, called PREMs, is based on flawed dataand favours the regions outside the city.

"With the restrictions imposed by the government on the recruitment [in downtown Montreal], it's not surprising to me that theclinic is closing," he said. "The restrictions are resulting in severe problems in primary care access."

Patients fear falling through the cracks

Bianca Grgoire, who worked as anurse clinician atla Citup until its closure, said that the Milton Park area is lacking in health services ever since the loss of the Royal Victoria andHtel-Dieuhospitals.

Those hospitals' services were moved to the MUHC's Glen site inNotre-Dame-de-Grce.

"Patients have been telling me that they are very sad," she said. "They want to make sure that they don't fall between the cracks."

Jorge Guerra and his partnerTatiana Dvorianskayalive a short walk from theclinic and have both been going there for years.

Guerra, 68, saidhe liked the personalized care he received from his doctor, and how easy it was to get to the clinic.

"Everybody is sadbecause we lost this opportunity to have medical help close to us," he said.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said that the permits to practise "are aimed at equitably distributing the new medical workforce" throughout local service networks.

In 2018, according to the statement, a quarter of new PREMs went to the island of Montreal.