Quebec tourist waited a week for emergency surgery after B.C. doctor refused to operate over billing

A Quebec man who fell and broke his jaw, cheekbone and a bone around his left eye while visiting British Columbia says his surgery was cancelled after he was told his home province "won't pay" for the procedure.

Patrick Belanger, 23, said his experience is a warning for residents of Quebec and all Canadians who take pride in a universal health-care system because doctors in other provinces could deny treatment to Quebecers by maintaining they won't be compensated.

Belanger's ordeal began when he and his girlfriend were walking along a trail in the southern B.C. resort town of Sun Peaks on the evening of June 10. He tripped and stumbled backwards in the dark and hit his face on a boulder.

He was taken by ambulance to Royal Inland Hospital in nearby Kamloops just before midnight and was told he needed surgery for a "broken face." But a surgeon was not available on Saturday, so he was discharged with a prescription for the opioid-containing drug Percocet to manage his pain, Belanger said.

The following morning, he returned to the hospital with his girlfriend, Beth Cooper. But Belanger said as he was being prepared for the operating room, the surgeon cancelled the procedure.

"He said the hospital would not let him do the surgery because I was from Quebec," Belanger said, adding he'd presented his provincial health card when he arrived at Royal Inland.

"I was kind of in shock. As I thought about it more, I thought that doesn't make sense. Normally, you'd do the surgery and figure out billing afterwards, or at least I thought that's what was going to happen.

"I was pretty scared. I was still pretty out of it because I was in quite a bit of pain and on pain medications. And I was calling my parents trying to figure out what to do."

Belanger said he offered to pay for the surgery through his family's private insurance, but the surgeon rejected that option, saying he first needed to speak with a hospital administrator who was not available on the weekend.

"When he told me that the surgery couldn't be done [that day], he suggested that I fly back to Quebec City to go get the surgery done," Belanger said.

He was given a window of 10 days before his facial bones would start to fuse.

"We thought it was just completely absurd that I, with a broken face, was to take a commercial airline to go get a surgery done in my own country."

Belanger's father and mother arrived in Kamloops later that week and tried unsuccessfully to speak with an administrator at the Interior Health authority about the best options for their son.

"We were baffled about his basic rights as a Canadian," Richard Belanger said, calling his son's experience a "nightmare."