As long as I’m working it’s ok, but let’s say it’s starting to get rough [financièrement]says D. Marie Gdalevitch.
He was an orthopedic surgeon for several years at the Verdun Hospital, in south-central Montreal.
Dr. Marie Gdalevitch, an orthopedic surgeon, is a Canadian specialist in the prolongation and correction of limb deformities.
Photo: Ivanoh Demers
She and her sister, who specializes in plastic surgery, invested two million dollars to establish two operating theaters in the town of Mount Royal. They expected to obtain a license in the months after their applications in November 2021 to perform medical procedures covered and not covered by RAMQ.
For the time being, however, even if everything is ready, they can exercise no hand there.
The purpose of the center was to have reasons for waiting in the public, says Marie Gdalevitch.
This long-standing Canadian member and deformity correction specialist alone has nearly 300 patients on his orthopedic waiting list.
Two million dollars are being invested to develop two new operating theaters in the town of Mount Royal.
Photo: Ivanoh Demers
And it’s not just his album that explodes. This is the case almost everywhere in Quebec, a phenomenon that appeared during the pandemic and that the public net cannot reduce.
According to data from the department, almost 40,000 orthopedic patients are waiting on the border across Quebec, including more than 6,300 for more than a year. It is characteristic that either the hip or the calf, which is most sick, endures the longest.
In plastic surgery, own sister, about 30% of 8265 patients waited more than a year. It covers essential plastic surgery interventions, including breast reconstruction following cancer, correction of deformities for patients who are victims of road accidents or hand numbness.
The Minister of Health had given a plan in June 2021 to reduce the tables to the pre-pandemic level by March 2023. The shortage of nursing staff has changed the plans.
To date, private surgery centers perform 10% to 15% of the volume of surgery.
With the help of their associations
As soon as they had received the rejection letter from the Minister of Health, the two sisters immediately prepared a request for review.
They count on professional associations to help them.
Orthopedists want to work and there is nothing more frustrating than receiving patients who just want to know when they are going to work, says the new president of the Quebec Orthopedic Association, Véronique Godbout.
Dr. Véronique Godbout, president of the Quebec Orthopedic Association.
Photo: Radio-Canada
Dr. Godbout, who works in the public network at Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal, believes Quebec should be more of a place for private health care.
“We are not the first in the world to want to integrate the private with the public. We are there in Quebec, I think we are too late!”
– Quote from Véronique Godbout, president of the Quebec Orthopedic Association
And the president of the Association of specialists in plastic and aesthetic surgery of Quebec, Dr. Eric Bensimon believes the licensing process should be questioned.
We want the process to be transparent, so you know what it takes to get a CMS [centre médical spécialisé]claims Dr. Bensimon
Dr. Eric Bensimon, president of the Association of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Specialists of Quebec.
Photo: Radio-Canada
“You can’t build a CMS out of good will, good faith, and at the end of the day say maybe we’ll give you a license, maybe we won’t. These are major funds. »
– A quote from Eric Bensimon, president of the Association of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Specialists of Quebec.
According to our information, two plastic surgeons sought a building in a commercial street in Westmount at the beginning of COVID, in addition to setting up six operating theaters there. A multi-million dollar investment. The medical surgery website in English promotes the services offered there.
Two years later, two surgeons were hired to raise their mortgage to 15 million in addition to the tricks of legal mortgages in the construction industry.
According to a source close to the scene, the two doctors took a bold financial risk. They prefer not to give an interview.
Six operating theaters are located in the Westmont building. Two master surgeons are trying to obtain a license from the Ministry of Health.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Davide Gentile
Block the public network?
Health Minister Christian Dubé has already mentioned in an interview that he is in favor of new private aesthetic surgery centers, given the shortage of nurses in the public sector.
In the letter of refusal received from the sisters of Gdalevitch, it is most certain that the situation of labor shortage and lack of medical facilities is present in the same administrative area.
Maria Gdalevitch says that she understands this about herself. But the nurse who is going to leave the hospital does not matter, and if you close the private part, she will not stay in the hospital, because she closed the private part, he argues.
Most of the nurses working with her and her sister come from other private CMSs or nurse placement agencies, according to a document submitted to the service.
At the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ), which collects data on the workforce in Quebec, we do not have accurate data on the number of nurses in CMS.
At best, it represents more than 9% of the 76,000 nurses who have a job in Quebec in the private sector, including in institutions, pharmacies and CMS.
Called last week to discuss the CAQ hospital projects, CSN president Caroline Senneville argued that most of the staff who will work in these new hospitals will necessarily come from the public network, which is already suffering from severe labor shortages.
According to the Médecins québécois pour le régime public group, the influx of surgeries for the RAMQ should be paid in a short time.
If you want to avoid further confirmation of the two levels of health, it is essential, in the short term, that the grant allows first to go to the CMS, which have the care of surgeries from the public network waiting list, that is c. to approach the loss of reduction, says its president, family doctor Mathieu Isabel.
In the medium and long term, the very existence of CMS must be called into question. Continuing to develop a parallel CMS network, we risk renewing with these companies, some problems similar to those we see today with private institutions. »
– Issued by Mr. Mathieu Isabel, President of the Doctors of Quebec for the Public Government
In addition to the debate about nurses, others also fear that hospitals will be deprived of their medical experts.
Dr. Perry Gdalevitch, plastic surgeon.
Photo: Ivanoh Demers
Perry Gdalevitch explains that he left the public network a few years ago for personal reasons.
I was the only plastic surgeon at the Saint-Eustache Hospital, she explains. I wasn’t allowed to have a vacation, I was always in the office, I had more of a life. He explains that he has no choice but to resign.
Today, she is free from the schedule and rents working time in other private surgical centers to receive clients. “I love the breast, it is my love,” he said.
At CISSs des Laurentides, spokesperson Dominique Gauthier writes the plan to recruit new medical specialists in 2023 will certainly allow us to increase our service offered to the public.
He also cites an agreement with the new CMS that could make it possible to increase the number of technical platforms dedicated to rising today in the Lower Laurentians.
AESTHETICS for equipment expenses
According to the two sisters’ plan, 25% of the center’s operating time for hand surgery would be devoted to medical procedures not covered by the RAMQ.
There is a huge demand for aestheticians and people who want to come in and have their surgery tomorrow morning, says Perry Gdalevitch.
According to her, it is a market that otherwise spreads the food of medical tourism.
All this equipment costs money and the private sector has joined the public sector to give a little boost to the public side, which cannot afford the appearance of a new equipment, he concludes.
