François Legault admits that it will still take years to catch up with the backlog in surgeries caused by the pandemic. For the opposition, the social contract between the CAQ and Quebecers is broken.
“You pay taxes and then you get health care. That was supposed to be the social contract in Quebec: you pay taxes then, whether you are rich or poor, the public system will take care of you within a reasonable time, then it will be free. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, this social contract was broken. Under the leadership of the PM, Quebecers are paying twice and waiting more than before. They pay once on their tax return then once on their credit card because they are forced to go to the private sector!”, railed Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois on Thursday at the National Assembly, citing dozens of examples of citizens forced to resort to private services because they cannot receive them in the public network.
The liberal opposition is of the same opinion. Not only is the population waiting for more and more in the emergency room, but Minister Christian Dubé’s promise to reduce the list of patients waiting for surgery has gone by the wayside.
«He promised there would be no more than 100,000 patients waiting for surgery. Today, there are 161,000,” recalled Liberal MP André Fortin.
Quebecers understand
François Legault had to admit that the plan to catch up on operations is far from finished. “Yes, unfortunately, we are talking about years to be able to empty the waiting lists,” he admitted.
The Prime Minister says that postponing surgeries during the pandemic saved 10,000 lives. He is convinced that Quebecers understand the situation.
“Now, we are in negotiations with the specialist doctors’ union, we have finally obtained an agreement with the nurses’ union, which will start to apply around the month of January, so that will allow us to accelerate further no more surgeries,” he said.
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