Patients fear their health will decline while they wait for Quebec family doctor

Three years ago, when Fatima Mesquita registered for a family doctor, the estimated wait time was 600 days.

It seemed absurdly long.

But her disbelief turned to panic in the summer of 2020 when her partner woke up with uncontrollable tremors in her head and hands.

"The more she was shaking, the more we were panicking," said Mesquita. The couple lives in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, a small town in the Laurentians.

Eventually her partner, who does not want to be named for privacy reasons, was diagnosed with a neurological disorder. The shaking is now less frequent, but the 50-year-old is plagued by other worrisome problems including insomnia, extreme fatigue, clumsiness and intense dizzy spells.

A few times, Mesquita said she had to rush home because her partner couldn't walk.

"Her legs were completely like jelly," she said. "Every other day, she's not feeling well."

For now, they rely on walk-in clinics in Montreal but that doesn't provide any continuity.

Without the supervision of a family doctor, they have no idea if these symptoms are related to the disorder or another health problem.

"We feel so alone and lost," said Mesquita.

But they are far from alone. In fact, so many Quebecers are in the same situation that Premier François Legault said this week that his government may force doctors to take on more patients.

According to the Health Ministry, more than 857,000 Quebecers who are registered on the government's website, known in French as the Guichet d'accès à un médecin de famille, or GAMF, are waiting to be matched with a family doctor.

At the end of August 2021, in the Laurentides region alone, nearly 77,000 people were waiting.

"I just can't understand why this is not treated like the most important issue," said Mesquita.