2023-08-23 22:42:26
(Quebec) Minister Christian Dubé will have to go further if he wants to offer users’ committees a prominent place in his vast reform. This is the observation of two groups representing them, who claim to have remained unsatisfied following the tabling of amendments on Tuesday.
“It’s boring because I know that the minister had good intentions”, launches the president and director general of the Council for the protection of the sick, Paul Brunet. “Perhaps it’s me who is naive, but I have the impression that the machine has given it a good run at the level of user committees and citizen participation”, he added following taking knowledge of the amendments proposed by Mr. Dubé.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Quebec Minister of Health, Christian Dubé
Christian Dubé presented a bundle of 150 amendments on Tuesday, several of which relate to the presence of user committees in the health and social services network following the creation of Santé Québec. In recent months, Mr. Dubé has said more than once that he is sensitive to the demands of user groups, who fear that the number of committees will decrease with his reform.
“I would tell you that we are not completely satisfied, but there has been progress,” nuanced the director general of the Provincial Regrouping of User Committees (RPCU), Sylvie Tremblay, on Wednesday. According to her, the minister does not go far enough. “We are always on one leg in the context where we find that on the missions in the establishments, we will probably lose people”, she laments.
In its initial version, Bill 15 provides that a single users’ committee be set up for each Health Quebec establishment. This raised fears of the disappearance of dozens of user committees present in hospitals or CLSCs, for example. However, Quebec comes, in an amendment, to specify that Health Quebec will be able to envisage the composition of other committees in installation.
But, the amendment is not accompanied by an obligation. “A committee that is militant is not the usual best friend of the administration. And the administration will have the choice to form one or not”, illustrates Mr. Brunet. In the minister’s office, it is explained that the way in which it will be decided to maintain or a users’ committee in an installation will come in the regulations of Health Quebec.
According to Mme Tremblay, the interpretation of this last amendment will be “the cornerstone” of user requests.
A half-hearted welcome
Both the Council for the protection of patients and the RPCU welcomed the minister’s decision to accept that three members of the new national users’ committee (an entity which will be created in the reform) be appointed not by the board of directors of Santé Québec, but by and among the users’ committees.
“We won on the national committee, but we didn’t win anything in terms of citizen participation on any other committee or board of directors,” notes Mr. Brunet, who asks that members from the committees of users are also present in other Health Québec bodies.
Another element that makes Mr. Brunet wince is the addition of an amendment allowing a caregiver to sit on the users’ committee of an establishment. The problem, according to him, is that the text indicates that this caregiver can be elected even if the person works within Health Quebec, for example a nurse. This is likely to cause unease if a committee wants to address care issues, he says. “It’s the wolf in the sheepfold,” says Mr. Brunet.
For his part, M.me Tremblay is delighted with the place given to caregivers and is not worried since the majority of members remain users. In the cabinet, it is explained, still at this level, that guidelines might indeed be added in the regulations of Health Quebec. The minister’s amendments must also be studied, then adopted by the parliamentary committee where the CAQ has a majority.
Far from a consensus, says the opposition
On the first day of the resumption of the detailed study of the imposing bill, the Minister of Health admitted that he might use closure to get his reform passed by the end of the session, in December . He affirmed on the other hand that he thinks “to find a consensus” with the opposition thanks to the amendments which he was on the point of depositing. Mr. Dubé is due to present a second batch in mid-September.
The Minister and his teams also held a briefing session on Wednesday on the sidelines of the parliamentary committee to explain to opposition MPs the details of his amendments. For the time being, what was presented by Mr. Dubé does not rally them to his reform.
“We had developed four priorities: [conseil des médecins, dentistes et pharmaciens]it’s insufficient, users, we might do a lot more and on foundations and universities, we still don’t have any details […] Are we closer to a consensus? Not really, we just have more amendments to study,” lamented Liberal MP André Fortin.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Liberal MP André Fortin
Medical specialists – to whom the minister comes to tighten the screw in his reform – denounced on Tuesday modifications which remain “superficial”.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Quebec Solidarity MNA Vincent Marissal
“I am half satisfied”, expressed for his part the deputy Vincent Marissal. “If we are able to do more for the users’ committees, to give a little more power to the [Vérificatrice générale du Québec pour l’accès aux organismes privés en santé] and avoid a crisis with the medical specialists… I am in an operation to save the furniture, ”he added.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Parti Québécois MP Joël Arseneau
“The Minister, in many cases, has taken part of a group’s request and partially responds to it,” notes PQ MP Joël Arseneau. “What must be remembered above all is that the minister said that [ses amendements] don’t fundamentally change his project and that’s what we see,” he said.
The work of the detailed study of Bill 15, which aims to make the health and social services network more efficient, resumes Thursday.
Know the status of waiting lists
The day following the tabling of 150 amendments, Minister Christian Dubé chose to add a new one on Wednesday: he wants Health Quebec to offer Quebecers access to the status of waiting lists. In other words, a user might know where he is on a list-whether for surgery or a mental health service-and know the average waiting time. This development aims to provide “accountability to people waiting for a service”, can we read in the document explaining the amendment. The access mechanism will be defined in the regulations of Santé Québec.
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