In an open letter published on Sunday, Health Minister Christian Dubé defends his “Health Plan”, a transformation that “takes time” while many network indicators have been in the red for months.
“The solutions to improve the network have been known for some time”, indicates the minister in the letter, while underlining that the health plan was presented “just nine months” ago.
“Now is not the time to get discouraged,” she pleads.
Minister Dubé recalls recent initiatives, such as the opening of specialist nursing clinics (SNP) to relieve the congestion of the emergency department and the care of a greater number of patients by family doctors.
Pointing to the manpower shortage, he adds that the government has “deployed accelerated training and offered scholarships to increase cohorts in health sectors, especially for nurses.”
It also outlines future plans, including the creation of two private mini-hospitals “to ease emergency room congestion and provide a better patient experience.” A project that will be led by MP Youri Chassin, former director of research at the Montreal Economic Institute, whose candidacy was criticized in 2018, in particular for his positions on the privatization of the health system.
We learn in his letter that the Minister of Health and the Elderly, Sonia Bélanger, will pilot the bill on medical assistance in the event of death, the study of which had been interrupted this spring. The Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, Éric Caire, will deal with a bill “on the accessibility of health data”.
Minister Dubé’s departure comes just over a month after announcing the creation of a crisis unit to develop solutions to recurring emergency overflows in Greater Montreal.
Since then the emergency room has remained red, occupied in particular by many patients struggling with respiratory viruses. If the latter have worsened the situation in recent weeks, the situation of hospitals in the province has been described as critical for months.
But “it is not by highlighting what is wrong that we will make our network attractive”, pleads the minister in his letter, published on social media. “Of course, there are things that don’t go so well, that’s for sure and I recognize it. But we can’t always talk only about what’s wrong, we help discourage those who serve us », he adds.
