Official optimistic on health-care merger

As the West Island based regional health agency unveiled a new slogan promoting partnership during its first public information session last Friday, a Health Ministry decision to apply an administrative merger with its West End counterpart as well as the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) looms.

Benoit Morin, who heads the West Island’s Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS), said further reorganization just two years after massive Bill 10 reforms could lead to new synergies and further improvements to services across the local health network.

“It’s no so much the what, it’s the how,” Morin said of a potential merger, noting the West Island CIUSSS is fully complementary with the services provided by the MUHC.

“I think the (2015) reform was put in place with a great vision that makes sense and we are bringing about the value right now. If we have to take it a step further, the how is extremely important. We have to use the method of project management.”

Speaking during a break at the information session held in Dorval’s community centre which was used to highlight achievements, Morin stressed the final decision to further merge local networks rests with Health Minister Gaétan Barrette.

“That’s the prerogative of our government and the (health) minister. He’s in the process of consulting,” Morin said.

“The West Island CIUSSS is doing its own round of consultation internally, to come up with a positioning.

“We expect to have a decision, or at least a horizon as to whether or not if we will get a decision or if the status quo will prevail, before or by the spring,” he added.

As reflected in its new slogan — The connection we share — Morin said the aim of the West Island CIUSSS is to encourage partnership.

West Islanders shouldn’t be too concerned about a potential network merger with the MUHC, Morin said.

“There are a number of concerns that can be brought to the forefront when we look at further steps, but it’s really about the population and the patients. When you look at the consumption of services, it’s the same population,” he said, adding West Islanders rely on the MUHC for tertiary services.

“About 80 per cent of the tertiary services for the West Island population is at the MUHC.

Another merger should be integrated slowly with the co-operation of staff and at the grassroots level, a bottom up model, Morin said. Meanwhile, Morin acknowledged that patients heading to the emergency ward at the Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe-Claire still face average stays of just over 20 hours.

Though he noted the expanded scope of the CIUSSS network has helped improve overall access to health care services.

“Of course the ultimate goal is to reduce wait times to as little as possible. We are working on harnessing different programs to channel the different clientele (such as people dealing with mental health issue) to where they can get the services they require, which is not necessarily in the ER,” he said.

“So we have to work before (visiting) the ER and we have to work after the ER, for instance, home services program,” he noted, adding an improvement in dealing with patients needs at long-term care facilities could also reduce pressure on the emergency department.

Morin said the expanded scope of the CIUSSS network will help improve overall efficiency, access to various health care and specialized programs, as well as ER wait time situations.

As part of provincial reforms, the now defunct West Island Health and Social Service Centre (WIHSSC) was abolished and then absorbed under the expanded scope of the West Island CIUSSS as of April 2015.

The West Island CIUSSS, which has an annual operating budget of about $800 million and some 750 physicians, covers a territory of about 184 square kilometres with a population of about 369,000.

Its facilities include the Lakeshore General Hospital, which serves as its head office, the LacSaint-Louis and Pierrefonds CLSCs, the Centre d’hébergement Denis-Benjamin-Viger, Ste. Anne Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, the Grace Dart Extended Care Centre, the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Batshaw Youth and Family Centre, the West Montreal Readaptation Centre and the Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle CSSS.

… the ultimate goal is to reduce wait times to as little as possible. We are working on harnessing different programs …