A small island community in the Ottawa River is looking at ways to strengthen its health services in Quebec, the province where it is located, instead of having to rely on health services on the Ontario side of the river.
Situated to the northwest of the rest of the MRC Pontiac, the tiny island community of Rapides-des-Joachims is only accessible from the Ontario side of the river. Due to long-standing agreements, the municipality is serviced by ambulances from Ontario, and patients routinely receive health care at the hospitals in Deep River and Pembroke.
Mayor Lucie Rivet Paquette explained that they were looking to find some kind of inter-provincial agreement for patients requiring longer stays in hospital, such as those recovering from a surgery. CHIP News spoke to the Mayor and also Outaouais health authority CISSSO’s Pontiac representative Nicole Boucher Larivière.
