GMF Hudson Medical Centre fears closure due to Bill 2

At Hudson's Medical Centre, there is concern that Bill 2 may force the clinic to close its doors.

Dr. Tara McCarty was among four doctors who decided to turn the Hudson Medical Centre into a family-medicine group, known as a GMF, in 2021.

It meant adding more staff — including nurse practitioners, doctors and nurses, as well as receptionists — but the trade-off, McCarty said, was the multidisciplinary care it offered patients. It also came with extra costs for the owners.

“We pay everything,” she said. “We pay our employees. We pay our snow removal, we pay our rent, we pay all of our suppliers. We need to pay to make this clinic run.”

The clinic now has over 11,000 patients, and McCarty said it is the only bilingual GMF in Vaudreuil-Soulanges. She said its future is now threatened by the new health-care law, Bill 2.

“We already have two doctors since this bill was adopted who are ready to leave. Possibly more.”

McCarty said that would spell the end of the GMF, since they wouldn’t be able to make up the lost rent and other expenses left by the departing doctors.

“The financial reality of the situation is that our clinic is going to close, and we’re not going to be the only ones,” she added.

Roee Ben-Eli, a consultant who helps GMFs get off the ground, including in Hudson, said the new law threatens the GMF business model.

“The administrative burden is extreme, and this new law makes it even worse because you have to account for so many things that are not even being calculated,” he said.

GMFs have tight margins, according to Ben-Eli, and under the new law, clinics could lose over 50 per cent in operating income.

“This is not a not-for-profit organization that can go into debt, we are not the government that can run a deficit,” he said.

Patients of the clinic said news of its potential closure has been stressful.

“It’s so sad, I mean everyone comes here, we need help,” said Jocelyne Lambert, who does not have a family doctor but comes to the clinic through the GAP program.

Carol de Sevigne said the clinic’s closure would be particularly difficult for the many seniors who live in the area. “It’s such a shame. The doctors will leave, and we don’t have enough doctors to begin with.”

The Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for an interview, but previously told CTV News, “Far from wanting to cut funding for GMFs, the MSSS is very supportive of this model, which promotes interdisciplinarity and collaboration among healthcare professionals,” said ministry spokesperson Marie-Claude Lacasse.

“The government is investing significant amounts in funding GMFs and has no intention of stopping, quite the opposite.”

Lacasse said the government will increase GMF program funding by $50 million on April 1 and another $50 million a year later.

McCarty anticipates the GMF Hudson could be shut down by April. She had a meeting last week with area MNA Marilyne Picard and is encouraging her patients to write to her to make their voices heard.

“Unless something is suspended, most doctors are leaving,” she said. “It’s going to be a complete disaster.”