Health ministry reprimands Santé Québec for going too far in cuts to home-care services
'It's a guarded win,' says patient advocacy group
Quebec's health ministry has warned Santé Québec against cutting $1 billion in home-care spending by March 2025, Radio-Canada is reporting.
In a letter obtained by Radio-Canada, Deputy Minister of Health Daniel Paré asked president and CEO of Santé Québec Geneviève Biron to review the planned cuts to home-care services. The Crown Corporation took charge of the province's health network two weeks ago.
"We have been made aware, these past few days, of several situations [in] which users have seen the number of hours of service granted to them by the service employment cheque measure significantly reduced," wrote Paré on Dec. 6.
"We would like to recall the importance of this measure in order to maintain home services for highly vulnerable people."
As part of the service employment paycheque program, the government helps pay for caregivers outside the health network to provide home-care services. About 22,000 Quebecers used the program last year.
Although those who rely on it are worried about cuts, government bodies say services are being scaled back for users on a case-by-case basis.
Concerns about the program's future arise as Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé vowed to limit the impact of $1.5 billion in cuts to the province's health-care services.
Apprehension about looming cuts persists
The Regroupement des activistes pour l'inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ), a group which supports people with disabilities and has been advocating for the revision of cuts related to home-care services, welcomed the news on Saturday.
"We're ecstatic about the news really, because this has been going on for weeks and weeks," said Steve Laperrière, the general manager of RAPLIQ. "It's a combined effect of everybody's pressure."
Laperrière says he received calls from a man on Friday around 2 p.m. who was still in his unchanged diaper and no one had been able to get him out of bed.
"It was a terrible decision," said Laperrière.
But according to him, Santé Québec is not entirely to blame; the government played a key role in the issue, having ordered the health agency to make cuts to balance the budget.
Although RAPLIQ's general manager called the news "optimistic," he said the battle is not yet won and that he and his team will remain on their guard.
"I don't understand why we had to go through that. It doesn't make sense because maintaining folks at home is a good deal for Quebecers," said Laperrière. "So why are we attacking that?"
Ingrid Kovitch, president of the McGill University Health Centre's patients committee, wonders how Quebec's population can tolerate any further cuts to services.
"There are too many shortfalls in the health-care system," said Kovitch. "Access is going to be more and more difficult, if not impossible."
Being on a waiting list for a hip replacement herself, she shares patients' concerns about potentially longer wait times.
Although she's "thrilled" that Santé Québec has been asked to review the cuts related to home-care services, Kovitch worries about what this could mean for other services.
"I'm concerned that where there's a win on one hand for some population and some segment of the population, the price will be more heavily borne by other segments, and typically these are patients who are most vulnerable," said Kovitch.
"It's a guarded win."
Based on reporting by Radio-Canada, Kwabena Oduro and Holly Cabrera, prepared by Hénia Ould-Hammou