Queen Elizabeth Family Medicine Group

February 27, 2008
(Westmount Examiner) Local clinics merge to form Queen Elizabeth Family Medicine Group
Health professionals and elected officials from Westmount are hailing the accreditation and merger this week of four medical clinics into a single family medicine group as an important step towards improving local access to health services which are available through medicare.
Under terms of an agreement creating the new Queen Elizabeth Family Medicine Group, the Roper Clinic and the Hillside Clinic, which are located in Westmount, have merged with Clinique Médical Vendôme in NDG, the McGill University Health Centre’s Family Medicine Clinic, and the Urgent Care Clinic, both of which operate out of the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex.
“We’re an alternative to the population for emergency care,” Dr. Mark Roper, a Westmounter and founder of the Roper Clinic, said during an official launch today at the QEHC on Marlowe Avenue in NDG. The complex had been the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, until that institution was closed by the province in 1996.
“If you have not had a major heart attack or a fractured hip, but a stubbed toe that you think is broken, or a bad cold, you can come here instead of going to the emergency,” said Roper. “It’s a nice option for the general public, instead of going to an emergency and waiting a long time for care.”
“There’s one fundamental thing in medicine — and that’s the right care, in the right place at the right time,” added Dr. Arthur Porter, executive-director of the MUHC.
“When we started in 2006 at the McGill University Health Centre, with all these wonderful partners to move our family practice to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, it was to achieve just this — to be able to have this centre caring for its community, within a community centre with times that are just absolutely fabulous.”
Westmount mayor Karin Marks [said] “This was a hospital to which Westmounters were very strongly attached,” she added. “Providing services for people who were patients in this hospital before is a wonderful thing. I was among the thousands of people who marched and petitioned and who were so devastated by the loss of a small community-based hospital here. And even though this is not a full-fledged hospital, it will provide a lot of the services that people want and need.”
Like other GMFs across Quebec mandated by the provincial government, GMF Queen Elizabeth uses an interdisciplinary approach for treating patients. The structure combines twenty family doctors who work in close collaboration with nurses, ensuring the continuity of services, especially for patients suffering from chronic illnesses.
Health officials associated with the new family medicine clinic say there are numerous advantages to organizing under the GMF model. Among other things, medical services are available with or without an appointment, there are longer opening hours, and individualized treatment can be adapted to patients who have special needs.
Service is also available weekdays and during weekends, and GMF Queen Elizabeth has an agreement with Info-Santé, the provincial health ministry’s information hotline, so that patients have better access to health information. It is expected that at least 15,000 Montrealers will eventually be registered as patients at GMF Queen Elizabeth.