The government should promote local management in the health network and create a new body to improve coordination, recommends Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services Dominique Savoie. Minister Christian Dubé pledged on Wednesday to implement all of the report’s recommendations.
During the unveiling of the health plan at the end of March, Mr. Dubé had asked Dominique Savoie to carry out a “diagnosis of the management [du ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS)] based on what we had experienced together over the past two years, ”explained the minister, in a press briefing.
The report indicates that the pandemic has revealed “certain shortcomings” in the health network, even if certain issues were present before. Difficulties already existed in terms of “access to health care and labor shortages in the context of an aging population, growing needs, dilapidated information systems and difficult access to data,” the document reads.
The Savoie report thus recommends a decentralization of the health network. To this end, Christian Dubé announced “the addition of hundreds of middle managers who will be on the ground in support of personnel in direct services to the population in the various regions”. This measure will be accompanied by a recurring budget of $40 million.
The government should also set up “a formal body for coordination and supervision to optimize access to health care and social services and improve their fluidity”, according to the report. Regarding the establishment of this entity, Minister Dubé said he had to “take a step back because there are implications”. “It’s up to my political party to come back with clear recommendations on this,” he said.
One of the report’s recommendations is to better separate the role of the Department of Health and Social Services from that of institutions. At present, there is confusion to this effect, admitted Minister Dubé. The MSSS “is there to set the main strategic directions, the objectives, but the network is there to operate,” he said.
It is necessary to be more attentive to the employees of the health network, as well as to the patients, also underlines Dominique Savoie.
More details will follow.