A Montreal woman says she went in for cancer surgery in 2011, and after a followup appointment with her doctor at the Royal Victoria Hospital, she was told to go see an orthopedic specialist at the Montreal General for an unrelated shoulder problem.
She finally got the call for that appointment last Thursday.
The woman, who contacted CJAD 800 via YourStory, but didn't want her name used, says she was flabbergasted.
"I got a call from a hospital and they called me to tell me that they have a referral for me from my doctor to see an orthopedic specialist," she said, "and I told them I wasn't aware of that, so I asked them, 'which doctor?'"
The next question she had, of course, was why it took eight years to get the call.
"She said, 'I don't know, this is my job, I was asked to make an appointment for you. Do you want the appointment or not?'" she said. "I told them, 'well, I don't have that problem, but I have other problems that I'd like to see the orthopedic specialist [about].'"
She was then told she'd have to get to the back of the line unless she wanted to see the specialist for her 2011 problem. "Who knows? I'm frightened that this situation is just getting out of hand."
In an email to CJAD 800, the MUHC indicated that they've started an investigation.
In the meantime, the very patient patient has opened a file with the MUHC's ombudsman's office.
The email goes on to explain the MUHC undertook a review and cleanup of waiting lists in some departments in 2016, following the creation of a new Centre de répartition des demandes de service montréalais (CRDS-Service Request Dispatch Centre) by the the central Montreal regional health board. The cleanup apparently found that some requests for consultations never got answered, and that there had been an exceptional demand for orthopedic specialists in recent years.
The maximum consultation time for a non-urgent consultation, according to the email, is one year.