The Coalition Avenir Québec proposes to split the structure of the Ministry of Health and Social Services in two by creating an agency responsible for operations in the field. One way, promises the party, to make the system more “efficient and more human”.
Health Minister Christian Dubé suggests entrusting the agency with the day-to-day monitoring of the network’s operations to enable the ministry to focus on orientations, evaluation and the budget.
“We want to ensure that there is less bureaucracy, less intervention by the ministry,” he said Wednesday during an election announcement in a hotel in Quebec. “More human. More efficient,” read an election poster in front of him.
Such a system, promises the outgoing minister, would decentralize the network and facilitate the implementation of the Health Plan he presented earlier this year. “We want less decisions in the office towers and more decisions on the ground,” he said.
The structure of the Integrated Health and Social Services Centers (CISSS) would not be affected by such a reform. However, if it is carried out, the latter will have to report to the Agency on a daily basis rather than to the ministry.
Fewer assistant deputy ministers but no savings
The government was embarrassed in March when the Quebec newspaper revealed that the Ministry of Health now had sixteen deputy ministers (one deputy minister and fifteen assistant deputy ministers), six more than four years ago.
The minister says that the creation of an agency would reduce the number of assistant deputy ministers in the department. Those whose missions were more operational would be transferred to the Agency, where they would enjoy another executive status. However, Mr. Dubé does not expect this to generate savings.
The Minister made no secret of it: this reorganization aims in particular to lighten the task of Deputy Minister Dominique Savoie, to whom both the fifteen assistant deputy ministers and all the CEOs of the CISSS report. It was Ms. Savoie who suggested to Christian Dubé to reorganize the ministry in this way.