Forced to run from one crisis to another, Christian Dubé must count his sleeps while waiting for the new Santé Québec agency and its top gun actually take the reins of the network, which should normally be the case “by the end of autumn”.
In principle, the separation of tasks between the ministry and the new body is clear. Santé Québec will be responsible for managing operations on the ground, while the minister will define the main orientations. In reality, this may be more complicated.
The president of the Federation of Specialist Physicians of Quebec (FMSQ), Dr.r Vincent Oliva does not hide his skepticism. “With Santé Québec, we are promised to depoliticize, but I believe it more or less. I think that politics will always remain involved in decisions,” he declared in an interview with Radio-Canada. Well seen.
The crisis that erupted on the North Shore, where the decision to end the use of private employment agencies by October 2026 caused service interruptions, clearly illustrates the difficulty of preventing role confusion when Santé Québec will begin operations. Whether he likes it or not, the minister will have to keep one hand on the wheel.
The Law limiting the use of the services of a personnel placement agency (Law 10), adopted in April 2023, provides for the gradual elimination of the use of agencies. In regions like the North Shore or Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where health establishments are highly dependent on it, the transitional measures that have been planned are not sufficiently advantageous for these agencies to have an interest in providing the personnel necessary to maintain services while waiting for the day when he can be replaced by permanent employees.
*****
Faced with an “unprecedented crisis”, which will lead to the closure of beds and a slowdown in activities both in emergencies and in operating theaters – with the human tragedies that this will inevitably cause – doctors on the North Shore are are naturally oriented towards the government. Since it was his rash decision that caused the crisis, it’s up to him to find a solution, and quickly.
Mr. Dubé promises to “do everything possible to remedy the situation as quickly as possible”, but he does not intend to give in to “companies who have spent years threatening us with service breakdowns and increasing their prices” , that is to say, to blackmail the government by taking the population hostage. These two contradictory elements seem to make the equation insoluble.
What would be the role of the Santé Québec agency in this standoff? It will be required that services be provided at all costs, while it will not have the power to modify the law to extend the transition period or to modify the rates set by the government.
Its CEO, Geneviève Biron, would certainly have preferred to take office under better circumstances. To ensure the smooth running of operations, she would no doubt be of the opinion that employment agencies constitute a lesser evil as long as there is a shortage of staff, which is likely to persist until the end of her mandate. of three years.
In the meantime, she will have to pick up the pieces broken by others as best she can, and she will be criticized for not doing it quickly enough.
*****
“What I wish for Mme Biron means being able to make decisions without having to take into account electoral agendas,” also said the president of the FMSQ. The location of the future private mini-hospitals that the CAQ had promised during the last electoral campaign – one in the east of Montreal, the other in Quebec – however, allows us to doubt this.
A call for tenders published last week provides for the opening of a geriatric establishment located in Lévis, to the great joy of CAQ deputies from the Chaudière-Appalaches region, where the saga of the third link had sowed discontent . The Prime Minister, however, assured that there was no connection.
The MP for Vanier–Les Rivières, Mario Asselin, however, argued that it would be too far away for customers on the north shore of the river. Never mind, a third mini-hospital project, which no one had yet heard of, will soon be announced in Quebec, where the latest Léger poll now announces a fierce fight between the CAQ and the PQ. Here again, it is difficult to see this as a simple coincidence.
Health remains the population’s greatest concern, and it will represent 42% of spending in 2024-2025. Can anyone seriously think that any government could forgo political dividends? On the other hand, if the new agency can take part of the blame for what is going wrong in the network, Mr. Dubé would not have wasted his time.