Bounced from hospital to hospital, injured teen blames his Quebec health card

UPDATE:Cameron Hunter got his surgery Feb. 23.

A Gatineau, Que., teenager who badly broke his hand last week has now been transferred to seven different hospitals across Ontario and Quebec, with no one able to agree on who should treat him.

Last Saturday, 19-year-old Cameron Hunter was injured while playinghockey in Toronto and was taken to the emergency department at Toronto General Hospital.

Since then, doctors have bounced the teen between hospitals in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Gatineau,without actually carrying out the surgery they all agree he needs.

He and his father, Sean,sayit's his Quebec health card that is getting in the way.

"It made us feel that we were second-class, and we will get second-class treatment," Sean Hunter said.

An interprovincial odyssey

The long, strange health-care odyssey told to CBC by the family and supported byphotos of Cameron Hunter's files began at Toronto General Hospital, where doctors said the teenager's nasty break meant a surgeon with plastic and orthopedicexpertise was needed.

The pair was directed toa hand surgery specialist at Toronto Western Hospital.

However, when Sundaymorning came, the surgeon said that since the injury would need followup surgery and care it would be moreconvenient if Cameron Hunter was treatedat the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital.

The family drove back to Ottawa and waited six hours at the Civic, only to have the doctor tell them he wouldn't do the surgery because he feared he wouldn't be reimbursed for the procedure by Quebec.

"He put it pretty bluntly,"said Cameron Hunter. "He said if we had an Ontario health-care card, we'd go through with the surgery."

The decision stung, he added,since he'dspent the previous summer working asan orderly at the Civic.

Back to Toronto, then on to Montreal

"It felt horrible," said Sean Hunter, who decided todrive back to Toronto Western Hospital to plead their case again.

However, staff insisted once more that care should be closer to the family's home. Theyadvised the family to report to the emergency department at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital.

Again, staff demurred and directed Cameron tothe Montreal General Hospital, where he was told a hand specialist could carry out the surgery.

By this time, Cameron Hunter had tested positive COVID-19. SoSean Hunter, assuming he also had the virus, stayed outsidein the family carwhile the teen, favouring his badly swollen wrist, pursued treatment.

At Montreal General, doctors again agreed the hockey player's injury needed surgery, but that it might take ten days before a bed was available.

The entire time, Cameron Hunter expecting surgery might be imminent ate practically nothing over nearly four days.

The Hunter family's situation is "really egregious," said Martha Jackman, a constitutional law expert at the University of Ottawa.

Apart from complaints to a hospital's ombudsman, there are few accountability mechanisms for individuals who feel they've been denied proper health-care, Jackman said.

"If we think of ourselves as having one right, it's access to health-care based on need," she said, suggesting that denying someone care could be a charter violation.

"It seems unbelievable that a young person suffering that kind of pretty traumatic injury, that we wouldn'tattend to them first and then figure out how to be paid next."

Paul Brunet, a lawyer and head of the Quebec Council for the Protection of Patients, was particularly critical of the way Ottawa Hospital staff responded.

"Stop being bureaucrats and just do your job and help patients wherever [they've come from] in Canada," he said.

'It felt like discrimination'

The Ottawa Hospital wouldn't answer questions about why Hunter was refused treatment, citing patient confidentiality, but said the facility does "work closely with care teams from other facilities to ensure patients receive the care they need."

Marie Louise Harvey, a spokesperson from Quebec's Ministry of Health and Social Services, said there are not substantial obstacles for Quebec residents who seek medical treatmentoutside of the province.

Patients should pay the doctor's fees out of pocket, keep receipts, and submit them to the provincial insurance provider, Harvey said.

Quebec's policy, however, is toremunerate patientsaccording to the rates in Quebec, even if they are lower than the fees actually paid, she added.

The Hunters said they're nowconcerned about how the long-term effects of delayed treatment might affect Cameron'suse of his hand and his hockey future.

They've now been told they canexpect surgery at Gatineau's Papineau Hospital next Tuesday.

Given what has happened so far, they aren't optimistic.

"It felt like discrimination," said Sean Hunter. "It really did."