Paul St-Pierre Plamondon proudly announced Friday morning that he intended to triple home health services over four years. It remains to be seen how he could achieve this in the context of the labor shortage.
The plan is ambitious: invest no longer 22%, but 50% of long-term care budgets in home services, which would cost $3 billion in additional investments per year. Seniors “want home care, not concrete,” said the PQ leader Friday morning.
The announcement took place in Gatineau in front of a seniors’ home under construction. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was accompanied by his candidate in Hull, Camille Pellerin-Forget, a physiotherapist who was relieved in a CHSLD at the height of the pandemic.
“We are committed to stopping the model of seniors’ homes. Those under construction will take place but [on] does not engage further in this model. […] It is very very expensive in terms of operation compared to what it costs in home care. »
A total of 24 million hours of home care are provided each year in Quebec, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Social Services for 2020-2021. About 400,000 people benefit from it.
The PQ plan is nothing new and was made public in May, but the PQ leader is taking advantage of the campaign to make it better known.
The CAQ also advocates a shift towards home care. But Paul St-Pierre Plamondon insists that his party intends to invest more. The budget adopted this year by the CAQ government in home care amounted to 2 billion Canadian dollars, while the PQ would increase this budget gradually to reach 5 billion per year the last year.
Despite the shortage
Is the PQ’s plan feasible in the context of a labor shortage? Paul St-Pierre Plamondon replies yes. “Our approach in home care is to involve several professionals outside of doctors,” he said.
The PQ leader also thinks that a shift towards home care will not require additional manpower. “The number of treatments to be provided is exactly the same as in the hospital. “We are organizing this by involving a certain number of civilians who, at the moment, are not involved in the hospital network,” he also said.
From the outset, he says, by improving the working conditions of the staff, as proposed by his party, the health network will be able to make it more attractive.
More hesitant on this subject than on those he has addressed before in the campaign, Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon had to turn to his candidate (a health professional), a few times, Friday morning, to answer questions. . “If there are more seniors who are in home care, there are fewer in CHSLDs and fewer in the hospital,” said Ms. Pellerin-Forget.
To journalists who pointed out to him that he risked being criticized for dreaming in color, the PQ leader replied that “many European countries”, including Denmark, applied such a model and that it worked. In this country, home care accounts for 70% of long-term care budgets. The current model, pleads Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, is not viable. “Stubbornness in a model that does not work is worse. »