Mr. Prime Minister, we are speaking to you with one voice, motivated by the conviction that no issue is more important for Quebecers than access to health and social services. quality. As you know, we have never intervened together before today. But in the current circumstances, we believe it is our duty to share our concerns with you. Please believe that we do this with deference and for the sole purpose of expressing our concerns about Bill 15 in its current form. We are of the opinion that the merger of hospitals and university institutes into a newly created state corporation will have a significant negative impact on these institutions which play an essential role in Quebec society.
If the objective of the reform is to make the health and social services system more efficient in general, and ever more integrated, there are exceptions to be preserved in the very interest of patients and the pursuit of missions of excellence. of these institutions. Hospitals and university institutes bring together care, research, teaching, technology evaluation and prevention in a single organization. These activities are inseparable and perfectly integrated.
These institutions also each have their own history and specificity. They have distinguished themselves in various ways, most of them by prioritizing certain specialties of medicine or care, in particular by their ultra-specialization, or by their links with their communities or their regions. They have also distinguished themselves by their spirit of initiative, which could not have manifested itself without their institutional autonomy.
For example, the Montreal Heart Institute model has achieved excellence in the field and international renown since its founding in 1954, by a group of committed doctors and citizens, under the inspiring leadership of Dr. Paul David. Its unique model is very simple: it consists of an integrated continuum of clinical application of research, prevention, teaching and technology evaluation. This approach helps ensure that patients benefit from its research and discoveries every day.
The proximity of the strategic pillars of the Montreal Heart Institute model has produced an impressive number of innovations. The assimilation of the Montreal Heart Institute through its complete merger into Santé Québec, or even the dissociation of these pillars would break the spirit of the Montreal Heart Institute and reduce the major clinical impact of its discoveries.
The integration of care, research and teaching missions has allowed university establishments, such as the Montreal Heart Institute, to improve patient care and become models of excellence in their respective fields.
The merger of the care of the Montreal Heart Institute and other university establishments into Santé Québec would inevitably lead to a decline in their performance in the pursuit of their mission of excellence in health, to the detriment of patients and the entire community. Quebec society. Indeed, the disappearance of the integration of clinical care and research would, among other things, slow down the translation of discoveries into improving the lives of patients.
We also believe that the loss of their distinct legal entity and their autonomy would have major adverse impacts on the Montreal Heart Institute and other academic institutions, in terms of raising philanthropic funding. This funding is essential to the sustainability and growth of advanced care, research, prevention, technology evaluation and teaching missions. Donations are generally linked to a therapeutic team, a local institution, research that appears relevant to the citizen contributing to the funding. The citizen who contributes is not seeking to finance a system, but rather an object, an institution, a research, a service which affects him in one way or another.
It also seems inconceivable for the functioning of these academic institutions to opt for a two-tiered approach, so that patient care is isolated in a distinct entity while clinical research, teaching and prevention must be organized and managed in a different organization.
For all these reasons, this complete or partial merger seems to us to move dangerously away from the objective of the envisaged reform, which is to make the health and social services system more efficient. Through this merger, these university establishments would lose their specific character and their unique approach, particularly in terms of care for the population. It would also deprive them of their volunteer board of directors dedicated to their success. These councils can currently count on members who provide them with cutting-edge expertise and close collaboration with the community, contributing powerfully to their success and recognition.
We are all aware of the importance of evolving our health system to face the ever more demanding challenges of accessibility and quality of care. Mr. Prime Minister, we appeal to your knowledge of the Quebec health network and the need to maintain the capacity for initiative of our institutes and university hospital centers and to avoid compromising the great benefits derived from it. Quebecers.