Following the end of use of private employment agencies by the Minister of Health, the North Shore finds itself in a critical situation with a single nurse responding to the minister’s request as part of his intention to form a versatile team to respond to the shortage of staff currently experienced in this region. Christian Dubé believed he could abolish the independent workforce in the regions, coming from placement agencies, by creating flying teams made up of nurses from the public health network, commanded centrally.
Unfortunately, Mr. Dubé seems to be moving towards central planning solutions, ignoring all international literature on health. The Conservative Party’s health spokesperson deplores the hypercentralization implemented by Christian Dubé in his reform. To improve the efficiency of the health network, we instead recommend a decentralized approach, based on local management, in order to better meet the needs of patients, regions and communities.
Regarding solutions to the (medical) labour shortage, we can offer several steps: it is essential to increase the workforce by training more health professionals, these
professionals should be able to work in the public and private sectors, without obstacles and penalties, management should be local, and finally, the state should remain the main payer, but theprovision of care should be delegated to the private sector for minor to moderate interventions.
Dr. Karim Elayoubi,
Conservative Party of Quebec
Quebec, QC
