A day after tabling its massive health care reform bill, Quebec’s Legault government is on the defensive.
While the CAQ is saying their plan will make the system more efficient, the opposition is accusing them of adding bureaucracy and doing little to help patients.
The Liberals, Québec solidaire and the PQ are taking aim at the government’s plan to install a new agency called Santé Québec to oversee the daily operations of the health system.
The government says the agency will streamline the management of the troubled network, add accountability and improve the lives of staff and patients.
How those things will happen though, is not entirely clear.
“It’s very well presented in terms of image, in terms of marketing, but it doesn’t have a very strong factual basis upon which you can say, ‘well, this is really going to change,'” said PQ health critic Joel Arseneau.
In question period, Premier François Legault was peppered with questions and comments from opposition leaders.
“He wants to add another layer of bureaucracy!” Québec solidaire spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois exclaimed.
Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay called health minister Christian Dubé a “mini minister,” referencing how Santé Québec will manage the health system instead of him.
“The opposition parties and unions want to defend the status quo, to defend the past,” Legault retorted, saying his government has the courage to make a sweeping change.
The premier defended the new law, saying local Santé Québec managers will be held accountable for operating each institution.
The concern is that the new agency will just be yet another bloated bureaucracy that won’t amount to better care for patients.
“It’s a reform by and for bureaucrats. There is nothing here for the patients,” Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said during a press conference.
There is also worry the government will just deflect blame to the agency when something goes wrong.
Some experts, however, say adding a layer between the government and the health system might help.
“Taking some of the political charge out of all of this and trying to focus on the needs of patients, the needs of families, the needs of our health-care workforce strikes me as honestly potentially a good thing,” said Erin Strumpf, a professor of health economics at McGill University.
Though Strumpf says right now it’s impossible to know how the plan will play out on the ground, she does appreciate the spirit of it.
“The important thing is it’s focused on efficiency and effectiveness of the health-care system, and that hasn’t been anyone else’s mandate up until now,” she said.
Opposition leaders are not ready to say if they’ll vote against the bill, though with its majority the CAQ can pass it anyway.
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