2026-02-23 from cbc.ca
Dozens of western Quebec patients were transferred elsewhere for medical care last year, leading to concerns that Outaouais residents could be at increased risk if they're seriously injured in an accident.
In 2025, around 100 patients — an approximate number from the CISSS de l'Outaouais (CISSSO) because of a lack of reliable data — who should have undergone surgeries in the region were sent to Ottawa or Montreal because of a shortage of vascular and plastic surgeons.
Dr. Ricardo Ruz, president of the L'Association de chirurgie vasculaire et endovasculaire du Québec and a vascular surgeon at the Cité-de-la-Santé Hospital in Laval, Que., said his group has been able to get seven hospitals in Montreal to join forces and take turns providing on-call coverage for urgent cases coming out of the Outaouais.
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