Reactions continue to pour in to the province’s sweeping new health bill.
Quebec’s medical specialists spoke out Tuesday, outlining some of their issues with the reform, while opposition parties criticized Premier Legault for some of his Twitter activity related to it.
Like many interested groups, the province’s medical specialists federation is still digesting Bill 15, the 300-page proposal to make the health system more efficient.
“There are good things and bad things in this reform,” said Dr. Vincent Oliva, president of the Quebec Medical Specialists Federation.
Their top complaint is the same thing they said on the day health minister Christian Dubé unveiled the plan.
“The specialists should have been consulted, because we know what the diseases are and we know the patients,” Oliva said
The specialists also worry about the new Santé Quebec agency that will run the system.
“The decisions will be very centralized and the doctors, we think, don’t have enough room because they’re farther away from the circles of decision,” Oliva explained.
However, they’re expressing openness to the minister’s intention to get specialists to put in extra hours to help the understaffed system.
“We know that certain physicians could work a little more. We’re ready to sit down and see what we can do about that,” Oliva said.
“The specialists are also saying, ‘We’re not happy with certain things, but we’re willing to continue the discussion.’ I’m a negotiator. I love that,” Christian Dubé said in Quebec City.
Opposition parties had harsh words for the premier, who in a tweet appeared to accuse the head of one of the province’s biggest health care unions of complaining about the new law just for the sake of complaining.
“It’s not a gesture that inspires unity,” said interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay.
Quebec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said Legault is in “confrontation mode.”
Still, Dubé thinks the opposition groups are striking a more conciliatory tone compared to last week when they angrily criticized the bill.
“I think the tone is changing and I think it’s normal when we do this kind of important structural changes that people had an initial reaction,” said the minister.
Oliva said the medical specialists are ready to “turn the page.”
Patients’ rights advocate Paul Brunet hopes the actual problem doesn’t get lost among the political posturing.
“We have over a million people waiting either to get a surgery, to see a specialist, to see a psychologist,” Brunet pointed out.
It could take years before the province knows the Dubé reform actually makes things more efficient.
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