Quebec’s health care minister announced the appointment of a special access coordinator whose mission will be to coordinate and execute better access to health-care services.
Christian Dubé said he hired Michel Delamarre for the job. Delammare is the former president and CEO of the Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre of Quebec City’s capital region. He is coming out of retirement to assume the post.
“I think the arrival of Mr. Delamarre has quite a big experience on the ground,” he said. “He is coming back from retirement so we appreciate he has made this decision. He has a lot of credibility.”
Dubé said Quebec’s health-care system is one of the busiest in the country. With more than 330,000 employees, 1,000 front-line clinics and 300 hospitals, he says it requires vast coordination to ensure proper health care is delivered.
He says Delamarre’s job will be two-fold. It will require coordination of the complex system of services across the province, and execution of better services for patients. Dube says he hopes Delamarre will address the challenges of delays in emergencies and surgery.
“First he will be on the coordination of the best practices with regard to access. We know we have ben able to reduce the time people are waiting either at ER or emergencies but it has not been everywhere,” Dube said.
“We need to improve all across the system. When I refer to coordination we need to refer to one person who is fully dedicated only on that, making sure best practices are everywhere.”
Mr. Delamare has several goals to ensure services are offered to patients throughout their health care journeys, including obtaining consultations with specialists in a timely manner and getting the help they need once they are discharged from hospital.
Another focus of Delamarre will be to improve the GAP, a plan implemented last year to address the 1.2 million Quebecers who don’t have family doctors. Dube said he wants the GAP performances improved.
Delamarre studied and issued a report on the GAP program, and set out some concrete action plans to improve it. Dube said he hired Delamarre partly based on his report.
Delamare studied the program across the province and will start implementing changes in December to improve it. They include extending operating hours and introducing a callback system so patients don’t have to wait on the phone.
Comments