In 2023, Yves Lehouillier spent three days hospitalized at the CHUS – Fleurimont. No complaints of his stay in hospital, except one thing: it is impossible to find his health insurance card when leaving the establishment. At the start, he thinks that the case is anecdotal, but after having spoken to those around him, he is no longer as certain.
Besides him, his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law have both lost their health insurance card after transport by ambulance and hospitalization. In the case of his mother-in-law, it is twice rather than one.
This is where I told myself that we will have to find what is going on. Malgence? Malast administration from the hospital?
he wonders.
However, Yves Lehouillier easily finds his hospital card when returning home. It is in a bag, with its prescriptions. The Map of the Quebec Health Insurance Régie (RAMQ) shines with its absence.
The Stokois Yves Lehouillier believes that there is a way to improve the hospital process to ensure that users find their health insurance card.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Christine Bureau
I say: “She is where, my card of the Ramqthe health insurance card? “I don’t know. I am told to go to such a office. I move. […]. I made five or six places like that. At one point, I said to myself: Well, I can order another
he says.
That’s what he does. The process is simple and the new health insurance card arrives quickly. Yves Lehouillier no longer thinks of it until her mother-in-law is also transported by ambulance from her residence for seniors, in December 2023. When he left the hospital, she no longer has her health insurance card, but still has her hospital card.
We redid a card, and there it was very complicated. It was my wife who made the steps. You had to prove that it was his daughter. It was necessary to prove that she was a Canadian citizen. In any case, there were lots of questions
he recalls, discouraged.
Then, February 2025, the scenario is repeated. Her mother-in-law leaves her residence on an ambulance with her health insurance card and returns without her. The card has disappeared again
he deplores.
Speaking with his brother, he realizes that the health insurance card of his sister-in-law was also lost after hospitalization, this time at Chus – Hôtel-Dieu. It was in January 2025.
It is when they give us our prescriptions, our papers. The hospital carte blanche is there, but not the health insurance card
confirms Maryse Gagnon.
However, she remembers very well for having given her to paramedics. When they pick us up, the paramedics, it takes the two cards
she says.
It is not the first time that she has been transported to the hospital on the ambulance, but it is the first time that her card Ramq It remains not to be found. I was set up upstairs and I did not review my card.
A simple coincidence?
Difficult to say if these losses are a poor coincidence or a recurring problem. THE Ciusss from Estrie – Chus does not count these losses. By email, a spokesperson explains that the health insurance card is given to the user in the first minutes after arrival or to the person who accompanies him. The hospital card is rather kept by staff for the duration of hospitalization.
As for personal effects, they are placed in a bag and a list of effects is produced. If the user is unconscious and alone, the card will then be placed in this bag
it is said.
For the Users Committee of Chus Fleurimont hospital and Hôtel-Dieu, there is no doubt to improve the ways of doing things. That three members of the same family lost their card after a hospital stay, it is annoying
supports its president, Claude Lemoine.
The chairman of the CHUS users committee, Claude Lemoine
Photo : Radio-Canada / Christine Bureau
The committee was made to the fact of the possible problem by Radio-Canada. However, the stake was considered worrying enough to see the journey of health insurance cards as long as the patient arrives at the hospital and until he left the establishment.
It concerned us. We took note of it and we talked about it on our committee on June 19. We have two managers who sit there, who also have been interested in the problem in an attempt to find the reasons that explain [ces pertes]
he sums up.
Have you lost your card?
The user committee of Chus invite you to contact him, if your card Ramq was lost during a stay at Fleurimont or Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Senior residence owners who experience the problem can also do so. THE Ciusss from Estrie – Chus Invite for his part a person who believes that his card has not been given to him to report the situation to the complaint commissioner and the quality of the services.
The Ramq Also does not count the number of cards lost in a year or the place where the user thinks he lost it.
It replaced more than 129,000 cards in 2023-2024 against nearly 132,000 in 2024-2025. In total, more than a million health insurance cards are issued annually, specifies a spokesperson by email.
The Quebec grouping of seniors for seniors is also aware of the situation, even if it is not an issue raised by its members.
The Stokois Yves Lehouillier is of the opinion that ways of doing things can be improved. “It is that everyone comes back with their carte blanche from the hospital. But the health insurance card does not come back. Following them together, it seems logical to me, ”he suggests.
