No shows: Quebec doctors ask government to act, over 400,000 missed medical appointments

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Every month, no fewer than 30,000 patients fail to show up to their medical appointments in Quebec, and the numbers aren’t going down.

These no shows have serious consequences as hundreds of thousands of Quebecers do not have access to a family doctor.

In a written statement published on Friday, the president of the Collège des médecins du Québec (CMQ), Dr. Mauril Gaudreault, scolds this growing trend.

“30 000! This colossal number is appalling,” he said. “Even more so when you consider that 1.4 million Quebecers don’t have a family doctor.”

He points out that each year, this represents 400,000 missed appointments out of the 18 million scheduled.

“Missing an appointment or a medical examination without notice means tying up resources unnecessarily. It deprives other people in need of access to care. It affects waiting lists. And it’s potentially risky for patients with serious health problems,” says Gaudreault.

He believes that there is an urgent need for an easy-to-use appointment cancellation and rescheduling service. This is the responsibility of the owners of private clinics, but it falls to the government in public establishments, he says.

Gaudreault notes that it is easy to give notice of any unforeseen circumstances in clinics, but that this is much more complicated in hospitals.

“A simple process must be put in place throughout the public health network so that patients can easily and quickly confirm, cancel or postpone their medical appointments and examinations,” he said.

“We will be calling on the government once again: the ‘no-show’ phenomenon is nothing new, and yet it is growing all the time.”

Gaudreault points out that the patient bears some responsibility. They must have the reflex to give notice of a delay or an inability to attend, just as they do for other appointments in everyday life.

The President of the CMQ also points out that no shows also affect specialist doctors. In 2022, 25 per cent of scheduled colonoscopies were cancelled at the last minute because the expected patients did not turn up, he said.

Of course, a patient who doesn’t turn up for a last-minute emergency such as a road accident is justifiable. However, Gaudreault doubts that the 30,000 missed appointments are all due to such special cases.

Over the next few weeks, the Collège des médecins plans to launch “an offensive on its social media platforms to explain to patients the consequences of no-shows for the health and social services network.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Feb. 14, 2025.