Opposition slams CAQ after party backtracks on promise to build 2 mini-hospitals

During the 2022 provincial election campaign, the Coalition Avenir Qubec(CAQ) party promised to build two mini-hospitals one in Montreal's east end and the otherin Quebec City.

The party has now backtracked, opting instead to build two geriatric clinics.

Themove has opposition parties accusing the CAQof breaking a key election promise and improvisingwhen it comes to improving access to health care. Some experts are alsoquestioning whether this is the most efficient way to provide care to elderly people.

Meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Health Minister Christian Dub touted his government's revised project.

"It falls in line with our priority of improving access," Dub said. "One of the issues is access to our emergency rooms, especially considering our aging population. So this is an action that is very targeted."

Some parts ofthe CAQ'splan remain unchanged.

The two geriatric facilities are still expected to be privately run and offer services reimbursed by medicare. The government hopes those facilities serve as a model that could be replicated across the province.

The clinics would be open 24 hours per day and seven days per week, in case some patients require overnight stays and observation. New patients would be welcome between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

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Sonia Blanger, the provincial minister responsible for seniors, said the clinics would provide "a geriatric approach" to minor emergency care.

Dub also specified that one of the clinics could be located in the wider Capitale-Nationale region, not necessarily Quebec City.

During the 2022 election campaign, the CAQ said the mini-hospitals would be open as of 2025. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the health minister said thatsame timeline applies forthe revised plan.

Unlikely to reduce trips to ER, expert says

Quoc Nguyen, a geriatrician and a researcher for the Centre hospitalier de l'Universit de Montral,says it's still early to assess the CAQ's plan but he's skeptical aboutthe notion that geriatric clinics would reduce pressure on emergency rooms.

He said triaging seniors dealing with several health issues can be difficult and it is often best for them to go to the ER even if their problem seems minor.

"Things that seem trivial might mask somethingthat isnot," Nguyen said.

He said rehab services for seniors and better home care access would do a better job of reducing the burden on ERs.

"Every bit of the system can work. It's just that it's understaffed and under-resourced and we always concentrate on this focal point that we talk about which is the emergency [room]."

Mylaine Breton, a professor with the Universit de Sherbrooke's faculty of medicine, wonders how these geriatric clinics will be co-ordinatedwith other existing services.

"It could be a good idea but we have to be sure that the ministry didn't just look at its budget and looked at the needs it could meet with this new format."

'Promise things, and not deliver'

Marc Tanguay, the interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Partyand the leader of the Official Opposition at the National Assembly, said the CAQ'sannouncement amounts to another broken promise and shows a "lack of vision."

"One of the trademarks of that government is to promise things and not deliver and always finding excuses and people to accuse to justify their own failure," Tanguay said on Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, Vincent Marissal, the Qubec SolidaireMNA for the Montreal riding of Rosemont, who's also his party's health critic, chided the province's health minister for what he felt was a lack of clarity and detail in the government's plan.

"Now it's a geriatric clinic but it's not really a clinic and not really a hospital. There will be staff there, the lights will be on," Marissal said sarcastically during question period at the National Assembly.

"Willthe minister abandon this bad idea?"

Marissalalso said he's worried that privately run facilities will take health-care workers away from the publicly run facilities already struggling to have enough staff.

Parti QubecoisMNAJol Arseneau saidcaring for the elderly should be the priority not building private facilities.

"Do you need the concept of a private mini-hospitals to take care of the elderly? Absolutely not. It's always been the public sector that takes care of the elderly." Arseneau said.