A single health-care umbrella group spanning the Ottawa River would be more efficient and effective than the separate Ontario and Quebec systems that serve Ottawa and Gatineau residents now, say experts inside and outside the region's health-care industry.

Douglas Angus, a professor at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management, believes such a group would do a better job of attracting and retaining personnel to fill shortages on both sides of the river, as the regions would no longer be competing with one another.

"Even though there's a provincial boundary, the health issues should be dealt with as a larger region," said Angus.

Last year, the Outaouais health and social services budget was $556 million, but the Quebec region spent $70 million on top of that to get its patients treated in Ottawa.

The Outaouais is short of doctors and nurses in part because under the current system, the Quebec government doesn't pay doctors and nurses in the Outaouais as much as Ontario pays their Ottawa counterparts.

Boosting their pay to Ontario levels could lead to protests from health professionals in other parts of Quebec.

Although forming a single regional health-care system could result in the need to pay higher salaries to professionals in the Outaouais, Angus believes unifying the system would produce savings by making it more efficient. He said combining resources would avoid unnecessary overlap and could lead to better service.

Some senior administrators within the health care industry agree that health care providers on both the Ontario and Quebec sides of the National Capital Region should cooperate more.

"Certainly we could benefit from working together," said Jean Bartkowiak, who is on the board of directors for Ottawa's SCO Health Service, which runs four long-term care centres in Ottawa. "Whenever I have the opportunity, I try to impress that notion."

Bartkowiak, who also used to manage the Gatineau and Hull Hospitals, said there is already a dialogue going on among his colleagues.

"My hope is that that would lead to maybe a more unified health environment in the future," he said.

MNA believes in Quebec health autonomy

Quebec Liberal MNA Benoît Pelletier, the minister responsible for the Outaouais, said he wants more partnerships between eastern Ontario and western Quebec. For example, he said he wants Gatineau patients to be sent to Ottawa instead of Montreal when services aren't available in their own region.

"But I also believe in the autonomy of the Quebec system," he said.

The Quebec government is now willing to go farther to solve the region's health care problems, he said, adding that he has asked health-care providers in the region to make recommendations in spring.

However, if the Outaouais's health services continue to decline, residents may come to the conclusion that they cannot get from Quebec what they need, said Geraldine Hutton, the former head of the Outaouais health board.

"Quebec does not understand the Outaouais region," she said.

Hutton said many residents pushed from the 1950s to the 1970s for Canada to establish a national capital district like the District of Columbia in the U.S., and she thinks if things continue the way they have been going, the public will begin clamouring for such a government district again.