Article content continued

This would makes sense if it were based on good data. Unfortunately it isn’t.

In a health system that allows portability of health-care services from one region to another, areas that attract citizens for work, studies or play will naturally have more of their doctors being used by outside populations. And given that doctors’ offices are often located near major hospitals, areas with such hospitals might appear to be over-served, even if many of those doctors’ patients come from outside the neighbourhood.

Indeed, in the RLS DLM, more than half of the family doctors are used by these commuting populations. RLS DLM has 384 family doctors practicing in the area, but, proportionally speaking, residents of that territory use the services of only 160 — well below the provincial average of 207 for a similar population. Patients from Cavendish (the territory of the N.D.G. and René-Cassin CLSCs) used 45.8 full-time family doctors in RLS DLM; from the South Shore, 32.3; from St-Laurent, 22.5; from the West Island, 22; from Laval, 18.9 and from Verdun, 8. The remainder came from other areas.