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Press release
29 August 2019

Cloutier-Du-Rivage Emergency Room Closure : The CAQ is Insensitive to Local Primary Care Services


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The MNA representing Pontiac and Liberal Critic for Health and Social Services, Mr. André Fortin, has asked the Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Danielle McCann, to overturn her decision to close the Cloutier-Du-Rivage emergency room in the Mauricie region’s Cap-de-la-Madeleine sector.

The citizens of Cap-de-la-Madeleine have always been clear about their desire for rapidly accessible emergency services. That is why the previous government took the necessary action, adding four more doctors to ensure that the emergency room could open.

Now that the Minister of Health is closing this emergency room, patients will have to travel as far as Trois-Rivières to obtain the care they require. It is clear that local primary care services are not a priority for François Legault’s government.

Minister McCann suggests replacing this emergency room with a clinic run by specialized nurse practitioners. However, at the moment the region is experiencing significant workforce shortages, so there is no guarantee that the necessary personnel will be able to be recruited. Unfortunately, it’s the patients that will pay the price with fewer services, shorter opening hours and many more kilometres to travel for care.

But how can the CAQ keep its election promise to take charge of all patients within 90 minutes if this emergency room closes?

How do they explain the multiple contradictions surrounding the closure of this emergency room when the CAQ MNA representing Nicolet-Bécancour himself asked that services be maintained, denouncing potential cuts when he was in the opposition?

The CAQ needs to backtrack on its decision and guarantee that the Cloutier-Du-Rivage emergency room will open. Citizens of the Mauricie region have a right to local primary care services too. Clearly, this isn’t a priority for the government, the Minister of Health or her colleague the MNA representing Champlain. The CAQ lacks political will. Today, they are choosing to abandon patients from the regions- it is an action that we firmly condemn and one we never would have undertaken.

–André Fortin, MNA representing Pontiac and Liberal Critic for Health and Social Services