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Hull hospital cardiologists quitting

Last Updated: Friday, February 25, 2000 | 4:37 PM ET

CBC News

The recent resignation of several general practitioners at the hospital in Hull has prompted other doctors to do the same.
Nearly half of the hospital's cardiologists have also decided to quit.
They say they can't handle the additional workload created by their GP colleagues who've left.
Right now there are eight cardiologists to care for patients at the hospital in Hull and Gatineau.
Soon, that number will be down to five.
Denis Larose is one of the resigning specialists. He blames the Quebec government for failing to increase the cardiologists' fees to match what their colleagues in Ontario make.
In Quebec, cardiologists get $70 for a consultation. That's $45 less than in Ontario.
Larose says the irony is that the province is ready to pay him lots of money to go work for a while in other regions such as Rimouski where there's a shortage of specialists.
There he'd get $350 a day as a bonus, $900 for his travel, and $150 a day for lodging and meals.
The remaining cardiologists at the hospital in Hull are concerned
Dr. Robert DeLarochelière is one of the cardiologists staying on. He says the workload will become impossible with his colleagues' departure.
DeLarochelière was instrumental in convincing the province to invest money in the Outaouais to build a angioplasty unit.
If the doctors' exodus continues, the hospital may find itself with state-of-the-art equipment but no doctors to operate it.