Quebec woman waits 9 years for medical appointment

ValentineSicotterequested an appointment with a specialist atSaint-EustacheHospital back in 2007.

Last week,nine years later,she finallygot a call back.

"I tried not to laugh on the phone," she said.

"I couldn't remember even having requested the appointment. I told them to give my place to someone who needed it more."

Sicotte was 19 when she requested the appointment with a gastroenterologist.

It's unclear why she wasn't contacted for an appointment during all these years.- AlainPaquette, spokesman forLaurentians CISSS

By the time she heard back, shewas 28 andhad managed to solve the problem herself throughlifestyle and diet changes.

The local health authority,theLaurentiansCISSS, couldn't explain why it took so long to get back to her.

• Quebec makes dent in notoriously long ER wait times

"It's unclear why she wasn't contacted for an appointment during all these years," said spokesman AlainPaquette.

"We really need to shine some light on this to better understand what happened.If indeed she was never contacted, this is unacceptable."

The LaurentiansCISSSsays that the average wait time for an appointment with agastroenterologistvaries from a few days for urgent cases to several months for non-urgent cases.

A 'glitch,' health minister says

Quebec Health Minister Gatan Barrette said what happened to Sicotte is an exceptional situation.

"It's aglitch. It is not normal to see that. This is something peculiar," Barrette said.

"I don't think it's something that's rare it's exceedingly rare but it did happen."

Paul Brunet, chairof theCouncil for the Protection of Patients, said such long wait times are a "breach of service."

"It's surreal.Nine years," Brunet said. "I'm sure somewhere in Africa or easternEurope, she would have gotten services and access to a specialist before that. Theproblemis that we in Quebec arepaying10times more what the people in Eastern Europe and Africa pay to have access to theirspecialists."

Brunet said he himself turned to the private system for a colonoscopy, after waiting three years to get an appointment at a public hospital.

"That's what they push us to do. I had never gotten an email, a fax or a call from the hospital." Brunet said, adding that government cuts to the health care system are to blame.

"We still maintain our support to our government with its cuts. Well, if we support it, let's suffer it."

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