“Quickly” hire 2000 more doctors, train a thousand specialized nurses (IPS) in four years, give more power to pharmacists and allow the emergence of the private sector; Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party (PCQ) unveiled the essentials of its “health platform” on Friday to improve the quality of care, by focusing first on competition.
Posted at 11:59
“Ahead of us, we have four parties that continue to brew the same old inefficient public monopoly,” hammered Conservative leader Éric Duhaime during a press conference held in front of the Lachute hospital. He denounced that 20% of the population still does not have access to a family doctor, despite the 2018 commitment of the Coalition avenir Québec to offer everyone one.
“Twice as many people are now on the access desk waiting list. There is no more access, it is a waiting counter. But they are still offering us reforms,” fumed Mr. Duhaime, accusing François Legault of having “betrayed the ADQists” when his party merged with the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ), which wanted more privacy in health.
At his side, the D.r Karim Elayoubi, who is a doctor at Lachute Hospital and the party’s candidate in the riding of Argenteuil, unveiled the “five main points” of the health plan. The first: to increase the medical staff, to bring the ratio of doctors per 1000 inhabitants beyond 3 in Quebec.
“We quickly want to ensure that there are 2,000 more doctors on the market. For that, it will be necessary to increase in a significant way the admissions in medicine, according to the capacity of the universities to take more. And accelerate the recognition of foreign diplomas”, raised Mr. Elayoubi.
The PCQ also wishes to “give more powers” to pharmacists and IPSs; the Conservatives also want to hire 1,000 to 1,100 in addition to these specialized nurses, in order to reach a ratio equivalent to Ontario.
From the emergence of the private
More generally, Éric Duhaime’s party wants – as he has already revealed – “to allow the emergence of a private system which will compete with the public system”. Concretely, “we would like to do a pilot project to entrust the management of hospitals to experienced private companies,” said Dr.r Elayoubi, adding that private insurers should also come to “compete” with the Régie de l’assurance maladie (RAMQ).
The Conservatives also intend to implement the “per episode of care” funding method. Thus, a hospital that treats more patients would be more funded. “The patient would therefore be seen as a source of income, not of expenditure. We want hospitals to compete for patients, ”justified the candidate from Argenteuil.
Finally, the last axis of the plan is to “decentralize” the system, to make decisions “closer to the field”. In each establishment, the party proposes to establish an independent administration committee which would have “more leeway” in its budget.
In the long term, it will also be necessary to create a real “interconnection of computer systems”, by putting an end to old technologies such as fax in the health system, affirms Mr. Elayoubi.