National Post (National Edition)
Minister delays Montreal health board appointments
More than half resigned in protest Monday
Faced with an outcry from patients’ groups and union leaders, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette has backed off plans to appoint within days more than half of the board of the McGill University Health Centre.
Barrette has agreed to consult with the Central Users Committee of the MUHC on a list of possible candidates to replace the 10 independent members who resigned en masse on Monday in protest against his handling of the beleaguered hospital network. The minister now hopes to name members to the MUHC board by the end of the summer.
The minister’s decision to extend consultations follows two emergency meetings he held Thursday — first with union leaders and then with patient-rights representatives.
“We told (Barrette) that we, as the patients’ committee, wanted to be involved in the selection of the new board members,” said Seeta Ramdass, the recently-appointed co-president of the MUHC users’ group.
“The minister was fine with that, absolutely. He recognizes that the users’ committee is an important part of the community of the McGill University healthcare network, so we’re very pleased that he’s going to allow us to be part of that.”
The patients’ group also demanded that it be heard on the appointment of a chief executive officer of the MUHC. The five-hospital network has struggled without a permanent CEO since last September, when Normand Rinfret stepped down.
Meanwhile, union leaders declared after their meeting with Barrette that they want to occupy three of the 10 board seats. The MUHC is overseen by a board of 19 members, 10 of which are chosen by the minister.
“We’re going to make a formal request in writing to have (three) permanent seats on the board,” said Manuel Fernandes, the interim-president of the CSN-affiliated union that represents nearly half the MUHC’s employees. “(The three unions that met with Barrette) represent nearly 10,000 employees, and there should be a permanent representation for these employees on the board.”
Denyse Joseph, president of the 3,000-member Union of Nursing and Cardio-Respiratory Professionals, said she left the meeting still uncertain about the MUHC’s future.
“The government and MUHC leadership are not on the same page and, right now, nothing is going to change . ... (Barrette’s) goal is to have the members of the board named by the end of the summer and, hopefully with a new board, they’ll be on the same page.”
Barrette remained in his Montreal office after the meetings and did not speak to reporters. On Tuesday, Barrette’s press attaché told the Montreal Gazette that he hoped to appoint new board members within days. The minister’s short deadline has raised concerns that he might be rushing matters in the midst of a crisis at the MUHC.
Fernandes acknowledged that despite discussions with Barrette, the unions “absolutely” had no idea of what the minister’s plans would be for the institution. But he added he expected some form of agreement on the MUHC’s future to be hammered out between the government and the reconstituted board. “There has to be an agreement, this can’t continue.”
The unions have decried what they say are $120 million in budget cuts to the MUHC in the past five years. Barrette, however, has denied the MUHC is underfunded, saying it’s financed on the same level as other hospitals across Quebec.
The old MUHC board, led by Claudio Bussandri, had been at loggerheads with Barrette over the funding question. Bussandri and nine other board members stepped down after the minister made public a report that recommended that the MUHC be placed under trusteeship — an option that Barrette said he ruled out.