‘Patients can get the service of their choice’
By Kevin Woodhouse
www.thesuburban.com
Ever since The Suburban spoke to McGill Univercity Hospital Centre (MUHC) public affairs and strategic planning director Richard Fahey in early February, about the eventual repatriation of services, once the new MUHC hospital is ready for patients in 2015, patients and patients’ groups have been concerned about possible changes to service and the ability to choose the health care option of their choice.
“We are currently working on mechanisms to provide clients with services closer to their homes but the choice will be up to the patients to continue to get the service of their choices,” Vincent Lehouillier, director of institutional affairs and human resources for MUHC told The Suburban during a Tuesday morning interview.
“If a patient living on the West Island has been consulting a physician or specialist at another hospital in the city and would like to continue with that doctor, that will be their choice,” Lehouillier said. “Globally, our re-organization will not affect the population but we are trying to improve services for residents.”
One of the ways to improve services once the new MUHC hospital is up and running in 2015, would be to “allocate more resources for the Lakeshore General Hospital and those changes need to be implemented by the time the new MUHC is open,” said Lehouillier.
Lehouillier noted that the re-organization’s objective “is not to save money but to offer new services to community and other hospitals wherever possible.”
When asked about concerns some dialysis patients are having as members of the MUHC Central Users Committee have been told changes are coming to patients who may have to seek dialysis treatment elsewhere, Lehouillier said that “all of those patients affected are being informed individually about where their new services will be offered.”
For other regions like Laval and La Montérégie, Lehouillier said that “we will be coordinating services with the agencies in question as we are hoping to offer services to clients closer to home.”
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