Addiction rehabilitation centre CRD Foster is Quebec's only public inpatient rehab facility offering English services, but in August it is losing its only doctor.

The centre, located in Saint-Philippe, just south of Montreal, used to have a doctor on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But now the doctor only comes in once a week and will stop working there altogether in August.

Fady Zigby is an educator at the centre and said it has already had to turn away some people with serious addiction problems because of the situation.

He explained there are nurses at the facility, but they are limited in what they can do and now can't call the doctor in case of an emergency.

He said that if the local health authority, the CISSS Montérégie-Ouest, fails to find a doctor in time, the consequences for patients could be severe.

"If they say: 'I'll try on my own. I'm going to try to have detox at my own home,' and they try to go cold turkey, they can risk death," Zigby said.

APTS health and social service union spokesperson Francis Collin said he worries that when the part-time doctor leaves in August there will be no replacement. (CBC)

A spokesperson from APTS, the union that represents clinical staff at the facility, said the search for a new doctor began a while ago but has so far come up empty.

"So we're fearing a lot that, by the end of August, nobody's going to show up," Francis Collin said.

A spokesperson for the health authority said the situation is concerning, but they are working to ensure no one is abandoned.

"All the affected departments are mobilized to find solutions and several steps are underway to find a doctor who will take care of the clientele of the Saint-Philippe facility," Jade St-Jean said in an email to CBC.

Other facilities

Private centres exist in Quebec which offer drug rehabilitation services to English speakers, but clients have to pay for those services.

Rehabilitation services are free to Quebec clients of the non-profit agency Portage, which operates in Gatineau, the West Island and the Laurentians. The centre offers bilingual services for adults and has both English and French residential programs for teens from across Quebec, said Seychelle Harding, its director of communications.