The majority of health players present at Minister Christian Dubé’s press conference on Tuesday morning welcomed the overhaul plan, even if some doubt that it will materialize through changes.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“You have to give the runner a chance. But in order for us to see changes quickly, the minister will have to make a sprint. Not a marathon,” says the general manager of the Réseau FADOQ, Danis Prud’homme. President of the Council for the Protection of the Sick, Paul Brunet believes that “the bigger an organization, the longer it takes to implement changes,” he says.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Danis Prud’homme, General Manager of the FADOQ Network
Head of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, the Dr François Marquis recognizes that the health system is “a heavy machine with a great force of inertia”. But according to him, the pandemic will have made health actors realize that “we must act”.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Dr François Marquis, head of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital
I have never seen a mobilization like that in the health network to change ways of doing things.
The Dr François Marquis, head of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital
“People in the community believe it’s possible to change,” says Dr.r Marquis, who says he is “ready to embark on the attempt”.
The Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) supports “the government’s wish to finally adopt a plan to promote family medicine”. But for its president, the Dr Marc-André Amyot, “the withdrawal of Bill 11, which is a dark cloud and a veritable sword of Damocles over the heads of family medicine in Quebec, would be a first step in this direction”.
“Culture change” needed
“For too long, the only option for the patient outside working hours has been the emergency room. The plan presented by Minister Dubé represents a change in culture that must be adopted by the entire network,” said the vice-president of the Association of Emergency Medicine Specialists of Quebec, Dr.D Laurie Robichaud.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Caroline Senneville, President of the CSN
President of the CSN, Caroline Senneville regrets that the refoundation plan is “more a list than a plan”. She fears an “increased privatization of the network”. The Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ) believes that there are “a lot of pious wishes” in the plan and doubts its realization, mainly “due to the underfunding of its health plan”.
President of the Order of Social Workers and Family and Marriage Therapists of Quebec, Pierre-Paul Malenfant believes that “social services do not have the place they should have” in the plan. He pleads for the creation of a “social services directorate”.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Michel Clair, former Minister and President of the Study Commission on Health Services and Social Services
“I have no hesitation in saying that I share many of the 50 ideas [du plan de refondation] declared Michel Clair, chairman of the eponymous commission whose report, published in 2000, foreshadowed several solutions put forward by Minister Dubé. “I see a minister who is very determined, who has looked at everything that had been published before and who takes up many of the recommendations that were made at the time”.
Christian Dubé said he was inspired by the former minister’s report for his plan. “It’s a little frustrating to see that it took 21 years to implement the recommendations, but at the same time it’s a great pride to have contributed more to putting forward ideas that still have value for society. Quebec,” he concluded.
With Alice Girard-Bossé, The Press