Health Quebec | “That’s what the network needs”

” This is a good thing. A very, very good thing. The former president and director general of the Montreal Health and Social Services Agency, David Levine, welcomes the arrival of Santé Québec and the new law on health efficiency. The College of Physicians says it is in favor of specialists assuming a “collective responsibility” to take better care of patients throughout the territory, subject to knowing all the details. However, health unions denounce the fact that they were not consulted.

“That’s what the network needs and what managers need,” says David Levine straight away. In the new law, Quebec will, among other things, merge the union seniority of employees across the province, force medical specialists to practice in the regions and put an end to regional boards of directors.

“Right now it’s the minister’s office that makes all the decisions based on the policy. It’s much better that it’s centralized somewhere else where the decisions are not made for political reasons, but [qu’elles] are taken for the well-being of the population,” he said.

The government will put an end to the regional boards of directors and will appoint general managers in all the large establishments. These directors will report directly to Santé Québec rather than to local boards of directors or to the Deputy Minister in charge of the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

However, the success of the new law will depend on the will of the people of the Ministry to “let Health Quebec, another distinct body, take responsibility for 50 to 55% of the budget”, estimates Mr. Levine. “I hope they will have the courage to do it,” he said.

In addition, the director of Santé Québec will have to be chosen carefully, he argues. “It doesn’t have to be the CEO of an automobile manufacturing company or a lumber mill. It has to be a CEO who has worked in the field of services to the population and where his employees and his customers are very important,” he says.

One thing is certain, there will be “resistance in the network”, in particular from the unions, he notes. “But I think that the government, being at the start of its mandate, will perhaps be able and have the courage to implement the necessary things. »

The College in favor of “collective responsibility”

The College of Physicians says it is in favor of the idea of ​​requiring medical specialists to assume a “collective responsibility” in order to better take care of patients throughout the territory, including in regions and hospitals that are currently neglected. . He decides subject to knowing all the details of the bill expected this week.

“I agree with what I hear if it’s in [le] makes sense to ensure that the medical community is more responsible for offering the services to the population it has to serve in its region,” said its president, Dr.^r Mauril Gaudreault.

As The Press revealed on Monday, Quebec intends to enshrine this “population responsibility” by new obligations prescribed for specialists: respond more effectively to consultation requests made by family doctors, provide on-call duty at the hospital and accept the sharing of unfavorable schedules (after 4 p.m., for example).

According to the D^r Gaudreault, doctors met during his recent tour of hospitals “agree with the fact that members of the medical community must better organize themselves to be more responsible, all together. »

In Quebec, it is pointed out that family physicians are subject to patient care obligations, whereas specialists are not. The latter must now be, in order to improve access to care, it is explained.

“Family physicians in the various regions have established good ways of doing things with regard to this social responsibility of providing care to the population. And if Mr. Dubé wants to do the same thing with medical specialists, well me, for sure I will approve of that and support that, ”said the D^r Gaudreault.

“Bargaining in the public square”

The lack of consultation surrounding Santé Québec and the new law on health efficiency, however, frustrate health unions. “These are things that were not discussed at the bargaining table. This government negotiates in the public square,” exclaims Réjean Leclerc, president of the FSSS-CSN. “I find it special to enshrine this directly in a law before even discussing it with the people concerned. »

“The government is inconsistent. He says with the edge of his mouth that he wants to decentralize, then his actions say the opposite. They want to centralize things even more,” says Mr. Leclerc. Eventually, the employees of the network will have a single employer, Santé Québec, rather than the 34 local employers, which will make it possible to merge the collective agreements.

According to the president of the CSN, Caroline Senneville, many questions remain unanswered. “We met the minister last Friday, who gave us the outline of the bill, but it was only the outline, because the National Assembly must be aware first of the content of the law”, she says.

Furthermore, M.^me Senneville wonders about the “added value” of these new measures. “Will national seniority, for example, mean that there are regions where it will be even more difficult to retain employees? she asks herself.

She also fears that these new changes will be seen “as an additional burden” for workers. “Not everything is going very well in the health network and we have to make sure that the changes are made at the right speed,” she says.

Several unions, including the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), the Association of specialists in internal medicine of Québec (ASMIQ) and the Federation of medical residents of Québec (FMRQ), have said they want to wait to see the project and to analyze it before commenting on it.

With Francis Vailles, The Press