Under fire from all sides: Quebec Health Minister Gatan Barrette's difficult week

Health Minister Gatan Barrette was under heavy firefrom all sides this week, facing criticism for his handling of the governance crisis at the McGillUniversity Health Centre andto his three-year effort to reform health care.

Barrette's been accused of behaving like a dictator, of giving MUHC administrators the silent treatmentand perhaps worst of all of crippling the health care system through his efforts to reform it.

'Radio silence'

It all started Monday, when all 10 independent board members of the province's largest hospitalresigned, complaining that they had no choice because Barrette refused to even answer their emails.

Former board member Glenn Rourke told CBC News he and his fellow board membershad been trying to meet with Barrettefor months, but"there was radio silence.We got nothing back."

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In a statement, the former MUHC board memberssaid that Barrette wouldn't even share with them reports on the hospital's finances and administration commissioned by theHealthMinistry.

Those reports were eventually made public.

'A lack of respect'

Barrette's problemsdeepenedon Tuesday, as more details emerged of his non-relationshipwith theMUHC'sboard, and another high-profilehealth industry representativesent arrows Barrette'sway.

JeanCoutu, the 90-year-old founder of the group of pharmacies bearing his name,said that the dispute between pharmacistsand the provincial governmentover Barrette's battle to reduce the cost of prescription drugshad left a "bad taste" in his mouth, according to The Canadian Press.

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Coututalked about the"difficult relationship" between his industry andBarrette atthe Groupe Jean Coutuannual shareholders'meeting on Tuesday at the company's headquarters in Varennes.

"What shocked me most is the lack of respect [he showed] in this public debate," said Coutu. "Hisnegotiatingtactics, the cuts to fees... werealmost always unjustified."

CoutuaccusedBarrette oftrying to recover $300 million dollars onthe backs of pharmacist-owners withthe minister's plan to imposecuts to pharmacists' fees and other measures to reduce the government's drug costs.

"It wasextremely difficult to digest. I'm not saying this isdictatorship, but that's not far off," Coutusaid.

However, the elderCoutu's remarks were later played downby the company's president and CEO, Franois Coutu, whosaid the situation his father described had been resolved in April.

That's when the province agreed to restore $133 million a year it had cut from pharmacist fees and restore a 15 per cent cap on professional allowances paid to pharmacists by generic drug manufacturers.

Stress leave increases

Also this week, an investigative report in Le Journal de Montralshowedthat the number of health care workers in Quebec going on stress leave has skyrocketed.

At the regional health agency for the Eastern Townships, the CIUSSSdel'Estrie, for example, the number of workers who've taken mental health leavejumped 47 per cent in the last five years, while at theCISSS de la Montergie-Est, the number grew by 31 per cent.

Le Journal said the information was obtained throughaccess to information requests.

That is in line with what CBC News reported in March, when Denyse Joseph, the head of the Union of Nursing and Cardio-Respiratory Professionals of the MUHCsaidthat sick calls, sick leave and resignations have increased because of budget cuts and bed closures at the hospital.

Reforms a 'total failure'

Finally, on Friday, the father of Quebec medicare, former Liberal health minister Claude Castonguay, told the Montreal Gazette that Barrette's health care reforms are a "total failure."

"Eventually, we're going to have to fix everything that Dr. Barrette has done," concluded the 88-year-old pioneer, whose work in the 1960sled to the creation of Quebec's health insurance scheme, provincially run hospitals and the network of community-based clinics, CLSCs.

Castonguay was particularly critical of Bill 20 and Bill 10, two major pieces of legislation that ushered in the health care reforms which Castonguaysaid gave Barrette too much power.

"I will not comment on the opinions of Mr. Castonguay," said Premier Philippe Couillard's spokesperson, Harold Fortin, in a brief email to CBC News.

"As a government, our objective is to increase access for patients. That is what we are working on every day," he wrote. "Since taking office in 2014, access has increased."

He referred further questions to the minister of health, however, a spokesperson for Barrettesaid he was not available to comment Friday.