The Association of Private Long-Term Institutions of Quebec (AELDPQ) deplores that the Legault government has still not announced the agreement of all private CHSLDs not under agreement, as it had promised. The Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais, indicated Tuesday in a press release that three private CHSLDs, which are the subject of a pilot project, will be approved “soon”.
The AELDPQ says it is disappointed and worried that “no clear deadline” has yet been set by Quebec for the agreement of all private CHSLDs. The group wants the government to immediately publish the list of 20 other private establishments that could be contracted in 2022-2023.
“For months, the AELDPQ has been reiterating with government authorities the urgency of acting and quickly agreeing to all private CHSLDs in order to avoid closures and service disruptions, to the detriment of the persons accommodated”, indicates its President Paul Arbec, in a press release issued on Tuesday. According to the AELDPQ, “the election period will only accentuate the great precariousness in which several establishments find themselves”.
Coroner Géhane Kamel recommended that all private CHSLDs be contracted in her report published in May on the many deaths that occurred in residential settings for seniors, in particular at the CHSLD Herron. In November, the Québec Ombudsman also recommended that Quebec ensure that service quality standards are “similar” in public and private CHSLDs in order to “counter the disparity in living conditions”.
Twenty more by March
Minister Marguerite Blais has promised, in the long term, to contract all private CHSLDs. The government’s 2022-2023 Budget Plan provides for an amount of $19.3 million to “harmonize public and private CHSLDs”. In the government press release issued on Tuesday, it is indicated that by the end of March 2023, up to 20 establishments could be approved. “The agreement process will continue in 2023-2024,” we add.
The Association of private establishments under agreement — health and social services considers that the agreement of three private CHSLDs — the CHSLD Côté Jardins and the Jardins du Haut-Saint-Laurent, in the Capitale-Nationale region, and the Résidence du Bonheur, in Laval — is “excellent news”. “It really means that the government is moving forward,” says its director general Annick Lavoie. She says she “understands” that the government is proceeding “slowly” in harmonizing public and private CHSLDs. “The agreement is a fairly complicated process,” she says.
The AELDPQ, on the other hand, is calling on the government for “transitional measures to increase the funding” of private CHSLDs not under agreement. “The increased use of independent labor” during the pandemic “has greatly weakened” these establishments, she argues.