Despite being signed up\u00a0to\u00a0a family medicine group for over a year, Sylvie Lavoie\u00a0has never\u00a0landed\u00a0an appointment\u00a0with\u00a0the clinic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, the\u00a068-year-old\u00a0\u2014 who lives with diabetes, hypertension and an HIV infection from a tainted blood transfusion \u2014 bounces\u00a0around the health system, seeing doctors with\u00a0no knowledge of her medical history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m sick,\u00a0I\u00a0go to the hospital\u2019s emergency room or I call 811 and\u00a0retell my story every time,\u201d said Lavoie, who lives in Joliette on Montreal\u2019s North Shore. \u201cIt\u2019s very arduous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lavoie feels like an orphan patient, but Quebec\u2019s Health Ministry counts her as a patient taken into medical care.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0part of a growing group of 1.7 million Quebecers registered with\u00a0a\u00a0family medicine group but not assigned to an individual doctor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Around\u00a0519,000 patients\u00a0were brought into the collective care of a family medicine group between Nov. 15,\u00a02025\u00a0and June 30, 2026.\u00a0They form the bulk of the\u00a0658,000 patients\u00a0signed up in that\u00a0time frame; the remaining 138,000 were signed up with an individual doctor, while another 152,000 moved from collective to individual care,\u00a0according\u00a0to\u00a0figures\u00a0from the R\u00e9gie\u00a0de l\u2019assurance\u00a0maladie\u00a0du Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n
In May, Quebec Health Minister\u00a0Sonia B\u00e9langer announced that the province had reached its goal of signing up 500,000 new patients as part of a December 2025\u00a0agreement in principle<\/a> with family doctors. Collectively registered patients figured into that tally.\u00a0<\/p>\n Collective registration\u00a0\u201cis a bit of an artificial follow,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0R\u00e9gis Blais, a professor at Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al\u2019s\u00a0school\u00a0of\u00a0public health.\u00a0<\/p>\n When signed up to one doctor, \u201cyou\u2019ll have a doctor who knows you, who can follow you, who knows your history.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA collective registration is a different doctor almost every time,\u201d Blais said. \u201cThe follow isn\u2019t the same quality.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent weeks, Lavoie said she received a letter\u00a0informing her that she had been reassigned to a new clinic, where she will remain under the care of multiple doctors.\u00a0Given her complex medical situation, she would prefer to have her own doctor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHIV is considered a chronic illness and there are a lot of effects. And for diabetes,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0also like to be followed for that,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Blais agreed that someone like Lavoie should have their own doctor. \u201cChronic illnesses require a follow,\u00a0a knowledge\u00a0of the patient,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said. \u201cWith an aging population,\u00a0we have\u00a0more chronic illness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n