Palliative care home in Trois-Rivires latest to refuse to offer doctor's help to die

A patient seeking medical help to die had to be transferred out ofthe Maison Albatros, a palliative care home in Trois-Rivires, because staff at the hospiceweren't willing to assist him, CBC's French-language serviceRadio-Canadahas learned.

The incident happened earlier this summer.

In accordance withQuebec's law on doctor-assisted death which went into effect last December,with no doctor on staff willing to carry out the procedure,the patient was transferred to the Centre hospitalier de Trois-Rivires.

Staff 'shaken up' by request

Most of the palliative care home's personnel were "shaken up" by the patient's request, the director of the MaisonAlbatros, Anne-Marie Hbert, told Radio-Canada.

She said the man had been a patient there for some time, and staff at the palliative care home had become attached to him.

All palliative care establishments in Quebec are required to set out their policy on end-of-life care, specifyingexactly what measures they're prepared to offer.

"Did this gentleman lack some information?" Hbert asked, saying she was uncertain if it had been made clear to the patient when he arrived that the hospicewasn't prepared to offer medical assistance in dying.

'Comfort care' only

She said the case has prompted the refugefor terminally ill patients to change its procedures: Now new patients are required to sign a paper indicating that they understand they will only receive "comfort care."

The Maison Albatrosisn't the only palliative care establishment to take this position: of the 31 such centres in Quebec, only two the MaisonRenVerrier in Drummondville, and the Maison Aube-Lumirein Sherbrooke offer medical assistance to die.

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Earlier this summer, Health Minister Gatan Barrette slammed the McGill University Health Centre for failing to amend a policythat requires terminally ill patientsseeking a doctor-assisted death to transfer out of itspalliative care unit.

Thatcontroversy stemmedfromthecase last April ofa palliative carepatient who was transferred to a different unit within the hospital before receiving a doctor's help to die.