(Quebec) Minister Christian Dubé is adjusting his vast health reform and will add elected municipal officials to the boards of establishments that will replace the boards of directors of hospitals. Staff representatives will also be appointed.
The Minister of Health unveiled his aims on Wednesday by tabling a package of amendments to Bill 15, which aims to make the health and social services network more efficient. The parliamentarians have begun the detailed study of the legislative text, that is to say article by article. Each amendment must be debated and voted on by the members of the commission where the majority of the elected CAQists is.
“I always have two things in mind: the patients and the employees. There will be amendments that will be presented on local management, but also the participation of elected municipal officials, ”said Minister Dubé on his arrival at the Blue Room on Wednesday. The minister had telegraphed his intentions in an interview with The Pressin April.
The Minister’s proposal aims to add elected municipal officials to the establishment boards, this body which will replace the boards of directors of the CIUSSS and CISSS once the reform is completed. The amendment stipulates that “no more than four people from the municipal sector of the territory served” may sit on the governing board.
The initial version of the bill provides for a single representative from the municipal world. We have also just added two people representing the staff. The Minister thus wants to increase “the representativeness of the region in which the establishment is established” and that of the health personnel.
Christian Dubé is thus seeking to respond to criticism accusing him of carrying out a centralizing reform, far from local circles, by creating a brand new state corporation, Santé Québec, which will oversee all the operational aspects of the Ministry of Health and Social Services. . The Department will focus on its planning role.
In the proposed amendments, Mr. Dubé does not go as far as what the former chairman of the commission of inquiry which scrutinized the health network in 2000, Michel Clair, proposed. The author of the Clair report had submitted to the committee the idea of setting up a “supervisory and community alliance council” in each MRC or CLSC territory for large cities.
These committees, which would “speak” for the local populations, could bring together elected officials from the MRCs and representatives of “major” community organizations, such as social economy enterprises and the chamber of commerce, explained Mr. Clair. .
The governing boards must include patients, representatives of the community, research and education. The CEO of the establishment appointed by Health Quebec is also present. According to the Legault government, these councils will be “the voice of the field with the organization, in particular to ensure the satisfaction of patients and the population”.