Health Reform | Users on the “top of the pile”, assures Dubé

2023-08-24 15:13:50

(Quebec) Christian Dubé ensures that the role of user committees occupies the “top of the pile” of his priorities. Faced with the dissatisfaction of the groups representing them, the Minister promises to adjust his reform once more to avoid the reduction of their presence in the network.

Posted at 11:13 a.m.

“If there are other adjustments to be made, I will make them because it is at the top of the pile”, launched Thursday the Minister of Health. “There is no objective to reduce the number of committees,” he added to his opposition colleagues. The parliamentarians are precisely studying on Thursday part of the amendments proposed by Mr. Dubé which affect the presence of the users’ committees.

Just before the start of the work, the Minister also stated that he had requested new meetings with the groups representing users in the health and social services network. Wednesday, The Press reported that the Council for the protection of the sick and the Provincial grouping of user committees (RPCU) had remained unsatisfied following the filing of a bundle of 150 amendments.

“I asked my people [mercredi] evening to meet them once more next week,” he said during a short press scrum. “I saw your article […] and it is necessary to make the difference between the requests which are made at the level of the national committee of users versus local committees. And in that sense, I understood their point,” admitted Mr. Dubé.

The Council for the protection of the sick and the RPCU indeed welcomed on Wednesday the decision of the minister to accept that three members of the new national committee of users (an entity which will be created in the reform) are appointed not by the board of directors of Santé Québec, but by and among the users’ committees. Still, the concern remains regarding the presence of local committees.

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. “When we arrive [à cet article]I may have other developments for users,” explained Mr. Dubé.

Clinical governance

The Minister also affirmed that other amendments will affect clinical governance. The developments proposed on Tuesday aim for greater involvement of doctors in the organization of care and management of resources. This was a direct response to their criticisms. On Tuesday, the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec called its amendments “superficial”.

“We are not done with clinical governance. I did say that there are elements in the amendments that have been presented, but there are still things to do because there are still negotiations to be done,” Mr. Dubé specified. The latter alluded to his negotiations with medical specialists, to whom we come to tighten the screw in the reform by subjecting them to compulsory activities, like general practitioners.

The FMSQ asks that this aspect of the reform be removed from the bill and favor a negotiated agreement instead. The work of the detailed study of Bill 15, which aims to make the health and social services network more efficient, ends Thursday to resume next week.

Christian Dubé, who does not rule out having recourse to closure to have his reform adopted, still hopes to reach a “consensus” with the opposition by December.

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