(Quebec) The Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, will present his “mammoth” bill on Friday, which essentially aims to provide better access to field data, an element that was lacking during the first wave of the pandemic.
Minister Dubé clarified his intentions at the Salon Bleu on Thursday, while answering questions from the member for Quebec solidaire Vincent Marissal. The latter asked him if the minister was “ready to waive parliamentary privilege” to answer questions for a possible public and independent inquiry into the management of the pandemic, including the health crisis in CHSLDs.
Coroner Géhane Kamel has struggled for a few days to have access to certain data, including the famous inspection reports of visits to CHSLDs. On Wednesday, the coroner also said she had trouble understanding the sequence of events between January and March. These elements are decried by the opposition parties, who ask Quebec to make all the information available.
“The question whether the government had all the information to manage this crisis, particularly at the start of the crisis, is really, for me, the most important,” replied Minister Dubé.
“Moreover, here, tomorrow, in this chamber, I will be tabling a very important bill that will go through several elements to ensure that governments, including ours, will have all the answers to what is needed. is happening in its network to be able to manage correctly, which we did not have at the start of this pandemic, ”he continued at the Blue Room on Thursday.
The tabling of a bill “respecting health and social services information and amending various legislative provisions” is on the order paper. Parliamentarians are sitting this Friday due to the start of the intensive weeks of work before the holiday break on December 10.
In her damning report on the crisis in CHSLDs, the Ombudsperson raised the issue of access to data. “In March 2020, Quebec health authorities did not have any information infrastructure enabling them to carry out effective health surveillance, essential to the management of a pandemic. We had to develop a first system in a hurry, then a following. All this has led to its share of confusion, ”wrote Marie Rinfret in her report tabled last week.
Minister Dubé had stated in September his plans to present a “mammoth” bill which “will change several laws”. In June, he announced the launch of a whole new project aimed at “transforming the way data is managed” in the health and social services system. He said he hoped to “perpetuate” several exceptional measures that were put in place thanks to the health emergency, to quickly obtain assessments and data.
Minister Dubé, who was appointed after the first wave of the pandemic a year ago, aimed to facilitate access to data in the network. It is known that at the start of the health crisis, the Legault government had difficulty obtaining real-time data on what was happening in the field, particularly in CHSLDs.