“People have high expectations, but so do I”: the CEO of Santé Québec promises Quebecers to deliver the goods

Less waiting, more humane care and an efficient network: the new CEO of Santé Québec, Geneviève Biron, wants to give Quebecers the health network they deserve, without however giving herself a timetable to get there.

“People have high expectations, but so do I,” promises Geneviève Biron, in an interview with The Journal at the dawn of his official entry into office. At 1^is December, Santé Québec will be the sole employer of the entire health network, thereby becoming the largest state corporation in the province.

Since her appointment last May, she has traveled across Quebec and its health establishments to meet workers and users. Everywhere she went, there were demands for change, she said.

Four priorities

Met in her office in downtown Montreal, just in front of those of the Ministry of Health, the former CEO of Biron Groupe Santé sets out her four priorities:

• Improve access to health care;
• Take the human aspect into account, both for employees and users;
• More efficiency;
• And find the causes of recurring problems rather than putting on band-aids at the last minute.

When can Quebecers expect to see a difference? “It’s too early to say what the objective we are giving ourselves is and in what time frame,” replies M^me Biron. But she affirms that she will be able to claim victory if she succeeds in increasing the population’s confidence in the network.

Nonetheless, she recognizes that to improve access to family doctors, Santé Québec depends on the agreements that the government will negotiate with them. She hopes that there will be more appointments during “unfavorable” hours, such as weekends.

“Today, we find in the emergency room, in non-urgent cases [P4 ou P5]75% of people who have a family doctor who just did not answer their call,” she explains.

Too slow

The province also has 180 places of surgical rooms which are not operating, she continues, wishing to operate the network at its full capacity for the approximately 160,000 Quebecers who are waiting on waiting lists.

Coming from a private background herself, M^me Biron does not intend to curb the use of private clinics at great expense for several years and which eat away at employees of the public network.

“We can’t deprive ourselves of it,” she says, taking on the play on words. Even if she advocates for a strong public network, she believes that it is an important “valve”.

A single employer for the entire health juggernaut will offer more fluidity and avoid competition between hospitals, she emphasizes. However, she did not decide whether an employee from Montreal wanting to move to Trois-Rivières, for example, could keep his seniority.