The president of the province’s association of cardiac surgeons is denouncing Santé Québec after the Crown corporation managing health care appeared to downplay the severity of the crisis in heart patients who have died while on lengthy wait lists for their operation.
Responding to a Gazette article Tuesday on missing statistics on wait times for cardiac surgery, Santé Québec issued a statement addressing the problem of premature deaths of heart patients.
“It is possible for a person to die while waiting for surgery for reasons that are not necessarily related to the heart surgery itself,” Santé Québec declared in a statement on X. “The medical reality is complex and can never be attributed to a single factor.”
Les listes d’attente en chirurgie cardiaque au Québec sont gérées avec rigueur et selon l’état de santé des personnes en attente. Les cas urgents sont opérés sans délai. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3IZ6sM352m
— Santé Québec (@sante_qc) March 31, 2026
That statement drew a sharp rebuke from Dr. Louis Perrault, head of the Association des chirurgiens cardio-vasculaires et thoraciques du Québec, who accused Santé Québec of “minimizing” the crisis.
“It’s government bulls–t,” Perrault said of Santé Québec’s comment.
“What is completely science fiction is that patients on the cardiac surgery wait list who die, they die from a pneumonia or a car accident. That’s not true,” he added. “That’s the standard government line, and they’ve repeated that line every time we come out with the problems in the wait lists.”
They’re deflecting, but we know that the patients die from heart disease and we told them that in the past.
Dr. Louis Perrault
Association des chirurgiens cardio-vasculaires et thoraciques du Québec
Perrault noted that five patients died while waiting for their surgery at the Institut de cardiologie de Montréal (ICM) — a figure that Santé Québec did not dispute in its X post.
“They’re deflecting, but we know that the patients die from heart disease and we told them that in the past,” Perrault continued. “These patients, they don’t die from cancer. It’s heart disease. So they are minimizing.”
‘Concerns … can’t be brushed aside’
Meanwhile, the health critic for the opposition Quebec Liberal Party, Monsef Derraji, criticized Santé Québec for publicly posting on its medical dashboard statistics showing wait times for heart surgery plummeting when the reality is far different.
“The concerns raised in (the Gazette article) are serious and can’t be brushed aside,” Derraji wrote on X. “Quebecers expect clear, honest reporting, especially when it comes to something as critical as heart surgery. When data appears to paint an overly optimistic picture, it undermines public trust and raises legitimate questions. Transparency and accountability should be the standard.”
The concerns raised in this article are serious and can’t be brushed aside. Quebecers expect clear, honest reporting especially when it comes to something as critical as heart surgery. When data appears to paint an overly optimistic picture, it undermines public trust and raises…
— Monsef Derraji (@monsefderraji) March 31, 2026
The Gazette reported that the missing data on wait times arose partly from the fact that the ICM was not transmitting its numbers to Santé Québec. On Tuesday afternoon, those figures were released, showing that the number of heart patients waiting for their scheduled operation at the ICM decreased from 517 in July 2025 to 412 in March, representing a drop of 20.31 per cent.
In contrast, Santé Québec is reporting on its website a more significant provincewide decrease of 58.49 per cent from Aug. 23 last year to Feb. 7. But cardiac surgeons and cardiologists told The Gazette they’re skeptical of the overall provincial decrease, going so far as to accuse Santé Québec of gaslighting the public.
Another heart surgeon, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the issue candidly, lashed out at Santé Québec for “taking us for idiots.”
Lack of perfusionists at the root of crisis
The decrease in wait times at the ICM is being attributed to an increase in the number of perfusionists — health-care professionals who operate bypass equipment — from seven in May 2024 to 11 in March 2026. But Perrault pointed out that the ICM still needs a total of 16 perfusionists.
The number of perfusionists across Quebec declined to 65 from 70 last year. Ideally, the province needs 90 perfusionists to meet the needs of an aging population, suggested Perrault, who is the director of the perfusion program at Université de Montréal.
It has become increasingly difficult for Quebec to keep its perfusionists because they often field offers for better-paying positions in other parts of Canada and the United States, Perrault noted.
“There are still 1,400 patients on the wait lists, and Santé Québec is not solving the problem with the perfusionists leaving,” he said. “They also haven’t invested massively to open up the operating rooms.”
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