The clinique des médecins d’urgence (CMU) in Sherbrooke has announced that its doors will be closing on March 31, as the clinic has struggled to meet patients’ demands and recruit physicians over the past several years.
In a press release, the clinic’s management team said that it was a difficult decision, but also a necessary one, since they were no longer able to meet the standards set by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Patients will have access to the facility until the end of March.
While the clinic is shutting down, the CMU management team noted that it won’t impact the other groupe de médecine de famille (GMF) located in the same building, or any other GMF in the Eastern Townships. It will, however, affect residents who don’t have a family physician.
Henry Khouri, president of the Massawippi Valley Health Centre (CSVM), told The Record that he could only speculate on the reasons behind the clinic’s decision based on his own experience trying to recruit physicians and provide much-needed health services in the region.
“We hear of doctors retiring, but we don’t hear of them being replaced, quite frankly. There is a shortage of physicians, which is much more serious than the shortage of nurses that the government is talking about all the time, which is real,” said Khouri in a phone interview.
