Quebec health agency cancels plan for private clinics to do long-delayed surgeries

Santé Québec runs public health care in Quebec. It has cancelled a plan to use private clinics for some surgeries. These were bone and joint surgeries, and plastic surgeries. They were for patients who had waited more than a year in the public system. The government would pay. Five clinics offered to take part. But Santé Québec says too few clinics came forward to make it work. In late July, about 30,000 patients were waiting for bone and joint surgery. More than 1,000 had waited over a year. Santé Québec will use hospital operating rooms and existing clinic agreements instead.