2023-07-13 04:00:00
You still have to pay to be able to use the internet in several health establishments in Quebec, to the chagrin of a group of citizens who are demanding that Wi-Fi access be free everywhere in the network.
“We go to McDonald’s or the car dealership, and we have free access to Wi-Fi. There is something somewhere that does not work if we cannot have it everywhere in the establishments of the health network, ”says the president of the users’ committee of the CISSS du sud de Lanaudière, Louise Henrichon, in an interview with the QMI Agency.
Since 2019, this committee has been fighting to ensure that the residents of three CHSLDs in the region as well as the clientele of the Pierre-Le Gardeur Hospital have free access to the internet. After several refusals, things have started to move for the hospital, where work is underway to make Wi-Fi accessible from next fall.
Louise Henrichon, president of the users’ committee of the CISSS du sud de Lanaudière, deplores the fact that Wi-Fi is free in McDonald’s, for example, but not in health establishments. Photo provided by Louise Henrichon
Unfortunately, this is still not the case for the three CHSLDs in the area: the CHSLD L’Assomption, the multivocational center Claude-David and the CHSLD de Repentigny.
“I think it’s an injustice, especially since three seniors’ homes are to open in September in the region, and it’s already planned that their customers will have access to Wi-Fi,” laments Ms. Henrichon, before to add: “It’s not entertainment, it’s a communication tool that is essential, especially for a part of the population that is too often isolated.”
From one region to another
In a letter sent to the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, the users’ committee points out that the issue goes far beyond the borders of Lanaudière and that there are significant disparities from one region and from one establishment to the other.
“At the CHUM, in Montreal, customers have had access to Wi-Fi for years. In Quebec, it can be had for a low cost. Then, in Trois-Rivières, only people on hemodialysis have access to it. It is to understand nothing, ”illustrates Louise Henrichon.
In its missive, the committee therefore summons Minister Dubé to put in place a “ministerial policy allowing universal access to Wi-Fi to all users and residents of the health network”.
Dube reacts
According to Minister Dubé’s office, investments of nearly a billion dollars were announced last year so that each establishment in the health network can “carry out local modernization projects”. “Each CEO prioritizes the projects in which he invests,” it was argued in a written statement.
For its part, the Ministry of Health and Social Services added that the deployment of Wi-Fi “is part of the initiatives included in their technological modernization plans” and that “several projects are underway in the establishments in order to extend the use of Wi-Fi”. However, he was not able to confirm on Wednesday in how many establishments it is now impossible to browse the net for free.
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