Quebec’s English health-care network could lose autonomy under Bill 15, critics warn

Montreal’s English-speaking community is concerned the Legault government is rushing to pass Bill 15, Quebec’s major health-care reform.

Members of the opposition and health-care experts argue there are still too many articles to analyze before the government invokes closure at the end of session next week. If passed, Bill 15 would create a centralized provincial agency that would oversee the public health-care system — a top-to-bottom approach many critics say could be a recipe for disaster.

“There is a limit to putting everyone in the same boat and therefore eliminating innovation that comes from the ground up,” Liberal health critic André Fortin said.

During a town hall meeting on Monday evening, English-speaking Montrealers were able to learn more about the bill and express their concerns.

“This hyper-centralization will in fact have a direct impact on the local decision-making that we have here in the ridings,” Liberal MNA Jennifer Macaronne said.

“We feel it’s very important to bring that information to our citizens.”

Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) president Eva Ludvig worries a centralized system will be out of touch with the community.

“English and French,” Ludvig said. “This will be a huge loss and will certainly have an impact on patient care, on innovation, on the ability to fund projects.”

Fortin argues the bill could not only demobilize a lot of people in the health-care network but could also make it very difficult to make independent decisions.

“All those local ideas that come from people saying, ‘Hey, we want to try something different here in our local health-care establishment because we have a different population, we have different needs,’ those will be very difficult to navigate through a top-down system like this,” Fortin said.

Some fear this could mean less autonomy for the English health-care network and huge changes for its hospital foundations.

“They will no longer be independent but that they’re going to have to report to the government, which changes dramatically how they function,” Ludvig said.

Quebec’s health minister begs to differ and insists it will be status quo.

“I will confirm with the amendments we made, there will be no changes for Anglos,” Christian Dubé said in Quebec City Tuesday morning.

But critics say he’s oversimplifying complicated issues.

“Minister Dubé wants it done ASAP, the plans to invoke closure without really looking at all the ramifications,” Ludvig said.

A petition created by the QCGN is asking for more time to study the bill. It has collected nearly 3,500 signatures.