Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press The new president and CEO, Geneviève Biron, during the announcement of her appointment, April 29
Marie-Eve Cousineau
Posted at 7:23 a.m. Updated at 10:35 a.m.
- Quebec
The transition committee of the new Santé Québec agency has submitted its first progress report. Twelve work projects have been set in motion, three of which have a “short-term” mandate to set up Santé Québec and merge health establishments. The others concern, among other things, coordination and fluidity, access to health care and services and socio-demographic challenges such as the aging of the population.
Created in January, the transition committee is chaired by Deputy Minister Daniel Paré. It brings together a dozen experts, such as deputy ministers of health, former presidents and general directors of establishments, the president of the Association of Emergency Medicine Specialists of Quebec, a nurse, a representative of a group of patients and a patient partner. Between January 12 and May 3, it held 17 meetings.
In its first report, the committee described the mandate of each worksite. The one on “proximity management” has the particular mission of hiring “responsible and more accessible installation managers (proximity managers) in the field”. “Each installation of a Santé Québec establishment is therefore under the supervision of a person responsible for ensuring the smooth running of its activities and the timely detection of abnormal situations,” it is written.
The access to care and services project has set itself the objective of improving patient care “by the right person at the right time”. It prioritizes the areas of emergencies, surgery and consultations with a family doctor and a specialist. It works on the issue of waiting list management allowing patients “to know their rank and to be offered other options in the event of waiting times considered unreasonable”.
“Clinical relevance” is also the subject of work. It will focus, among other things, on “means” and “mechanisms” for sharing “good practices” between health establishments. “The notion of “capacity of the State to pay”, with a view to equitable distribution of resources, must also be taken into account”, it is specified.
The patients' point of view
One project is devoted to “population responsibility and citizen participation”. It aims to identify ways to involve users, among others, “in the discussions surrounding the development of an innovative care and service offering, carried out in co-construction, so as to be focused on the creation of value and sustainable health.”
The transition committee is also looking at the aging of the population. As part of its work, a project must analyze “current socio-demographic trends” and “medium and long-term changes, with an emphasis on the elderly clientele”. “Other affected population groups (young people, ethnocultural communities [for example, refugees], First Nations people, etc.) may also be considered,” we write.
The transition committee is scheduled to submit another progress report on September 12 and January 12, 2025.
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More details to come.