MONTREAL – If Quebec is truly going to put the patient at the heart of its major healthcare network reform, users must be given a stronger voice. This was requested by several speakers who were invited to comment on Bill 15 in the parliamentary committee on Thursday.

On the second day of the special deliberation on the draft “Health and Welfare Efficiency Improvement Act”, the parliamentarians heard in particular the patient director and the scientific co-director of the Competence Center for Partnership with Patients and the Public (CEPPP), Vincent Dumez.

While he welcomed the bill overall, he expressed concern over the risk that user rights defenses would be weakened by reducing the number of users’ committees, as well as a potential loss of independence for future boards of directors.

Vincent Dumez particularly defended the concept of partner users, which currently number around 1,500 in Quebec. These are people with serious illnesses who have long experience as patients.

“They are experts in their pathology and in navigating the network,” he argued. In his view, these patients are among the best at providing concrete solutions that have a significant impact on access to care.

But these patient partners are missing from the bill. No specific role is assigned to them in the organization chart presented by Health Minister Christian Dubé.

dr Antoine Groulx, GP accompanying Mr Dumez, ended his speech by urging elected officials to “infuse a little more humanism and goodwill into the law” by listening to patients.

In the afternoon, the Council for Patient Protection (CPM) took up the torch, claiming “we are witnessing a form of erosion of civic participation” and calling for a user committee for every care facility with an adequate budget to fulfill its role.

The CPM called for greater citizen representation by demanding that Santé Québec’s user representatives be elected, not appointed.

A request that Minister Christian Dubé apparently wanted to comply with.

In its brief, the CPM also suggested the possibility of taking over the role of the national user committee created by the new law, in order to avoid the establishment of a new structure. The organization is particularly concerned about the fact that the national committee has been given a ‘watchdog’ role over local committees.

The Health Secretary introduced Bill 15 last month. The extensive document with almost 1,200 articles provides in particular for the creation of a new state body called Santé Québec.

This new structure will be responsible for coordinating Quebec’s health network operations, while the department will retain its role in policy-making and budget allocation.

The National Association of User Committees (RCPU), in turn, suggested that the minister participate in the assessment of the state of the network of existing committees in order to find a compromise. Once again, the minister seemed open to the idea, opening the door to adding user committees or subcommittees to what his bill envisages.

The RCPU also requested that the national user committee have the ear of the ministry, and not just Quebec’s health service, to influence direction alongside operations.

Regardless of the net result in terms of storage space granted to them, users always have the option to contact their complaints officer as a last resort.

In addition, at the end of the day, the President of the Regroupement des commissaires aux Complages et à la Qualité du Québec, Jean-Philippe Payment, reported that its members welcomed their role in the bill, while suggesting ways of improving it to strengthen and strengthen it increase responsiveness.

Finally, they welcome the opportunity to report to a national commissioner with an overview of the network.

The Health and Social Services Commission will hear the next speakers on Bill 15 on May 9th.

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