(Montreal and Sherrington) The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) wants to increase the role of the private sector in health by launching a call for projects to build two new private medical centers halfway between a family medicine group (FMG) and a hospital for treat minor cases there who do not need to go to the emergency room.
Updated at 0:09
These new centers, qualified Saturday as private “mini-hospitals”, would be located in Montreal and Quebec. There would be a family medicine group (FMG) open seven days a week, permanently accessible emergency rooms that can treat minor problems that do not require hospitalization and operating rooms for day surgery procedures, among others. The services offered would be covered by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
Thus, if the CAQ forms the next government on October 3, a call for projects would be launched and these two new private centers could welcome their first patients in 2025. Their construction would cost 35 million each, foresees the party of François Legault. This amount would be entirely financed by the private sector, it was specified.
However, these new “mini-hospitals” would have access to the same funding model as that governing the FMGs, which are also private.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services has an agreement with the private owners of FMGs to cover part of their fixed costs.
Christian Dubé, Minister of Health and CAQ candidate in the riding of La Prairie
At the end of the afternoon, Saturday, François Legault assured that it was “totally excluded” that the two new private medical centers simultaneously welcome within their walls patients who pay out of pocket to obtain services and those whose care are covered by the RAMQ. All services offered will be covered by the public, he promised.
Objective: unload emergencies
By building these two new centers during a possible second term (there could eventually be “a dozen”, specified the CAQ, if the model proves effective), François Legault promises to reduce waiting times to emergencies.
“Hospital emergency rooms still too often remain the main point of entry for patients, because they have no other choice. They need care, but their state of health does not necessarily require access to technical platforms and services as specialized as those of hospitals, which contributes to bogging down the network, ”explains the party.
There is sometimes a lack of a type of establishment halfway between the GMF and the hospital, for patients who need care, but not necessarily in the emergency room. […] These local services, developed and managed by the private sector, will reduce the pressure on hospitals.
Future Quebec Coalition
“If we are able to remove as many of the [cas mineurs] who come to the emergency room and who shouldn’t be there [en les prenant en charge] either in FMGs or in [ces nouveaux centres privés], we would reduce the traffic in our emergencies by 30 to 40%. That’s huge! “, pleaded Christian Dubé.
And how long will Quebecers have to wait on average in these private “mini-hospitals”? “In the call [de projets] we’re going to do, we’re going to tell them, ‘You need to have enough doctors, nurses and professionals to give us wait times that we think are reasonable,'” he said. .
Right turn
For the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, this is another demonstration of the “turn to the right” of the Coalition avenir Québec, which would be inspired by Éric Duhaime and his Conservative Party (PCQ).
Mr. Legault is taking a right turn, towards private health, when we know that it does not work, and I think he is doing this because he is more and more influenced by Éric Duhaime.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire
The Conservative leader, for his part, underlined that “to see the CAQ calmly consider [comme] the ‘P-word’ is a little less taboo, that’s good news”. The PCQ proposes for its part to allow Quebecers to subscribe to complementary insurance to receive private care. “For people who will be on a waiting list for surgery in the public system, they will be referred to a private establishment after a certain period considered unreasonable to be treated there, and it is the State that will pay for it. all costs”, proposes the party.
With Charles Lecavalier, The Press