Creation of Santé Québec: transition committee to meet for first time

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé says the transition committee for the establishment of Santé Québec will meet for the first time this Friday.

In a press release, Dubé explained that the transition committee will have the mandate, in the short term, to advise the Ministry of Health on the major stages of work identified. It will establish the steps to take for the gradual transition of the ministry’s operations to Santé Québec.

Committee members will have to anticipate and implement measures so that staff and managers experience a smooth transition.

The committee, made up of eleven members with various skills, will have to publish progress reports every four months for transparency.

The creation of Santé Québec is one of the major components of the province’s health care reform, Bill 15 which was adopted by the National Assembly on Dec. 9 after the government invoked closure.

“I’m trying to be hopeful, I’m trying to be positive that these changes could end up helping the system, but it seems like we’re just going around in circles and we’re not really focusing on the frontline and what’s occurring in the emergency rooms,” said Montreal nurse Naveed Hussain.

“What I would want Is the identification of the priorities that Quebec will be focusing on during the next year or two years to ensure that the healthcare system stabilizes.”

#WATCH: “The identification of the priorities,” is what Montreal nurse Naveed Hussain says he wants to see come out of the Santé Québec transition meetings, as the Quebec government works create the health agency.

READ: https://t.co/tfP2adjUO0 pic.twitter.com/adbhrPlZNT

— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) January 11, 2024

Under the law, Santé Québec will be responsible for coordinating the network’s operations, while the ministry will remain in charge of the main orientations.

Among the members of the transition committee are a doctor, several former heads of government health authorities and user representatives.

“Please make sure that your advocates are themselves people who are representative of the sociocultural diversity of the province with lived experience as patients,” said patients rights’ advocate, Seeta Ramdass. “Don’t handpick your friends, your favourite colleagues to do this, you need lived experiences and the people who actually had challenges accessing healthcare in the system to be involved in the discussions about what Santé Québec will look like, what it will do.”

Ramdass says she believes a patient advocacy groups should be involved and also on the board of directors of Santé Québec.

Dube said on TVA Thursday that Santé Québec is less about centralizing and more about coordination. 

He says next week they’ll start accepting applications for the management team and plan to hire the head of Santé Québec by April.

“It’s going to be someone that has a business background and they be paying this person over $500,000 a year,” said Hussain. “Now, does this person actually have a real feeling of what’s happening on the ground right now?”

The transition team may add more experts to the committee, depending on their progress.

“People who are on the frontline of the regions and Montreal should be involved,” Hussain said. “I’m talking about nurses doctors people in the emergency room because they have solutions, we feel our government doesn’t listen.”

-This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French and translated by CityNews.