The promises of the Minister of Health for “a more humane and more efficient network” did not impress the opposition parties, which on Tuesday criticized the government for recovering its “broken promises” and throwing “window dressing “.
Minister Christian Dubé presented his plan in the morning to implement the “necessary changes for a more humane and more efficient network”, in which he gives himself three years to straighten out the health network.
Already, the first information about this plan had left the opposition parties hungry last week. Now the final version of the game plan disappoints them again.
“The CAQ had promised that every Quebecer would have access to a family doctor. Today, if you don’t have a family doctor at home, you are told that you won’t have one with the CAQ. Not only is it a broken promise, but they have no intention of coming back with a plan that will allow that, ”launched the Liberal leader, Dominique Anglade.
His colleague Monsef Derraji stressed the government’s desire to set up a frontline access counter. This is “a first step”, he stressed. But “they should have done it a long time ago: it does not solve the problem of the million Quebec patients who are waiting [d’avoir] a family doctor,” he added. Ms Anglade said that “research and science” had shown that it is “important for a patient [d’avoir] regular access to a family doctor”.
The fear of privacy
At Quebec solidaire, Vincent Marissal once again expressed concern about Quebec’s desire to make greater use of specialized medical centers, private clinics that perform day surgeries on behalf of the public network. ” [Le ministre veut nous faire croire] that it will cost less, because the patients will arrive with their sun card and they won’t see the difference. But it’s wrong. Private clinics cost more,” he said.
“Then during that time it’s kind of silly because our operating theaters in our hospitals are underutilized [parce] that the doctors who should be in the operating room of the hospital work in private clinics. This is the theory of communicating vessels. »
The desire of the Coalition avenir Québec to set up a front-line access window, inspired by a model implemented in Bas-Saint-Laurent, constitutes, in Mr. Marissal’s opinion, “a spectacular about-face”. . “They campaigned, in 2018, on a doctor for everyone. Eventually they dropped that just a few days ago,” he said.
Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called the plan “window dressing”. “It’s not a government plan, it’s an election platform, election advertising,” he said. “It’s not the counter [d’accès à la première ligne], the key is: are there professionals to take the patient and above all are there professionals to follow up with the patients? »
He said he is waiting for more details about changes to doctors’ compensation. “But for the moment, from what we understand, there is not much quantified”, he recalled. Like his colleagues from the other parties, he was worried about the traffic jam that could be caused by the accumulation of health bills by the end of the parliamentary session in June.
“It is a symptom of a government which, at the last minute, realizes that its record is thin in several areas. And there we launch, a bit like powder, lots of bills and lots of initiatives, ”he said.