By Dian Cohen
Editor’s Note: This civic literacy article was submitted by Dian Cohen shortly before her passing. As per her wishes, it is being published posthumously as planned.
Being proactive comes with huge rewards. It saves us time, one of our scarcest resources. We make better decisions and feel good about ourselves when we foresee challenges and proactively plan for them. These are the best reasons to register for your Quebec Health Booklet. It’s a one-stop reference to the last 7 years of your medical records – the medications you get from the pharmacy, lab test results, X-ray, ultrasound, and medical imaging reports, medical services you’ve received that are paid on a fee-for-service basis, and the health workers who’ve consulted your health information. It also allows you to make an appointment in family medicine online using the Québec Medical Appointment Scheduler or register with the Québec Family Doctor Finder (GAMF). In short, it makes you a member of the health professionals’ team charged with helping you live your healthiest and most productive life.
To register for your Québec Health Booklet, the only eligibility criteria are having a health insurance (RAMQ) card and being 14 years of age or over. It helps if you’re computer-literate – the online service is most convenient: https://carnetsante.gouv.qc.ca/portail. You can obtain your complete history by mail by downloading and filling out the Request for Information About a Person and Authorization to Disclose the Information to a Third Party.
The first online step is to prove that you are you — the Government Authentication Service. Until the end of March 2025, you could access your Health Booklet if you had a clicSECUR access, but that has now been phased out. Because this service secures your personal information, creating your account is slightly complicated but well explained here: How to create a Government Authentication Service account (https://www.quebec.ca/en/gouvernement/identite-numerique/government-authentication-service/how-create-account)
for the conditions and documents required for account creation.
Once you’ve created your account, you’ll have access to everything you may have to do officially with the government – for your vehicle registration and driver’s licence: SAAQclic – Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec online service; Québec certification service for early childhood educators; registration for Public Prescription Drug Insurance Plan; replacement of a RAMQ card if it is damaged, lost or stolen; making your consent to organ and tissue donation official; issuing your directives of what medical procedures you want in case you’re unable to tell the health professionals yourself. And of course, your Quebec Health Booklet.
A small heads-up: ensure that your Quebec-issued identity cards (RAMQ card and driver’s licence) show the same first and last names. The RAMQ insists on your maiden name, the SAAQ does not. So some people may have their maiden name on one and their married name on the other. This may have to be corrected in person at a service outlet or by phone.
One thing that’s missing from your Quebec Health Booklet is your health professionals’ notes. You have the right to see them, but you have to ask your health professionals for them. The files may or may not be digitized. You may have to pay for printed photocopies. It is astounding that we can access and manage our private banking, insurance, purchasing, and investing online from anywhere. Securely. But not all our health information. Hopefully, this will soon be available. We should be able to access our health information whenever we want and from wherever we connect.
The online system shows the limitations of the healthcare system in general. If you don’t have a family physician and you go into the Québec Family Doctor Finder, you’ll notice that you are registering for a nurse practitioner, not a doctor. The site tells you that it’s not possible to say how long you’ll be on the waiting list. Nevertheless, the Quebec Health Booklet is invaluable in helping us manage our health. Almost half the people surveyed by Canada Health Infoway say that having their health information saved them from going to a doctor at least once. “The return on investment is significant when we can avoid wasted patient and physician time when a visit isn’t necessary,” says Canada Health Infoway. Encourage your friends and neighbors to register, too.
