Drug addiction: the largest medical clinic in the city center under threat

The GMF Clinique l’Agora near the Berri metro in Montreal, which serves a vulnerable clientele, including many drug addicts, needs around $200,000 to meet its budget.

A discretionary amount from the Ministry of Health and Social Services which is long overdue this year, says the medical director of the clinic, Dr. Emmanuelle Huchet.

Costs have exploded, the price of rent is increasing, everything is increasing, and here we are wondering if even in the short term, we are still viable.

Funding nursing staff is crucial, explains Ms. Huchet. We have three nurses and we ourselves pay these nurses, because we were tired of having nurses loaned by the CIUSSSshe said.

The clinic received a total of $320,000 from the ministry last year to finance its activities, including the discretionary amount. South-Central Montreal has around twenty family medicine groups (GMF).

More than 4,000 vulnerable patients

The clinic opened in 2018 and has been hit hard by the increase in itinerant clients.

Currently, the GMF has 6,000 patients, 70% of whom are judged vulnerable.

The medical director of the Agora clinic speaks in particular about 800 patients who have drug addiction problems.

It’s still a lotshe said. Not counting 450 patients followed for substitution treatments such as methadone.

During our visit, a homeless user, Marc Caron, did not dare imagine the departure of his auxiliary nurse Marie-Ève ​​Baril or the closure of the clinic. Talk to everyone, they’ll tell you the same thing: if she leaves, it’s a mess.

For Ms. Baril, her work and that of her colleagues contribute in particular to relieving congestion in downtown emergencies.

I am sure, convinced that we have an impact on the traffic in emergency rooms because people do not have other places to go, do not have other walk-in clinics, she said. It’s hard to get a doctor and not everyone has a health insurance card.

According to RAMQ data, around 2,000 cards are issued each year to people experiencing homelessness in Montreal, with the collaboration of shelters for the process of obtaining them.

250 million for GMFs

According to data from the Ministry of Health, Quebec pays the 384 GMFs in Quebec approximately $250 million per year, notably for operating costs and the remuneration of clinical nurses.

GMFs are at the heart of the government’s strategy to provide access to primary care, particularly to a family doctor.