Western Quebec's Ontario health bill soars

Quebec's Outaouais regionis spending more and more at Ottawa-area hospitals to deliver services that patients don't have access to in their home province.

Last year, the Quebec government paid $67 million to have more than46,000 Outaouais patients treated in Ontario, CBC has learned from theQuebec's public health insurance agency. That's a $25-million increase from 2000.

Outaouais health agency spokesman Dr. Guy Morissette saidQuebec is required tofoot the billfortreatment in Ontario if waiting listsare too long or the servicepatients need is not available in the Outaouais.

"We're certainly concerned about this and we certainly want to be self-sufficient," he said. "The major limit is the shortage of doctors and professionals. If we could reduce this shortage, we would provide the care."

Shortage of maternity beds a factor

Morissette said a number of factors are responsible for thegrowth in the region's Ontario health bill.

The Outaouais does not have enough beds for expectant mothers to use when giving birth, the aging population is putting pressure on the health-care systemandformer Ontario residents who have moved to the Outaouaismay be continuing to see their family doctors in Ontario and use the province's health-care services because they are unable to find family doctors in the Outaouais.

In addition, Ontario has started charging higher rates for services to Quebec patients, Morissette said.

He added that the region relies on Ottawa to provide cardiac and other specializedsurgeries thatotherQuebec residentswould go to Quebec City or Montreal hospitals for.

He also noted that even though 15 per cent of Outaouais residents receive medical treatment in Ottawa, that is down from 40 per cent in the 1970s, before the province took measures such as building the Gatineau hospital.

Health administration researcher Marie-Pascale Pomey, who teaches at the Universit de Montral, said the provincehas shown it can investadditional money to stop patients from seeking treatment in another jurisdiction.

"A few years ago, Quebec [the province] was facing a situation like the one you have in Outaouais regarding cancer care and radio-oncology," she said.

In the late 1990s, public pressure forced the government toboost Quebec's cancer care treatment programs instead of paying forpatients provincewide to be treated in the U.S., she added.

ButPomey saidOttawa's health-care system is so close and so much better than its western Quebec neighbour's, and that means it will take a major commitment from the province to keep Outaouais patients from crossing the Ottawa River for treatment.