Dark days for Quebec healthcare
It’s a dark moment for Quebec health care. The first part of a system-wide reform was rammed through the National Assembly in the wee hours of Saturday morning after a marathon sitting to adopt controversial Bill 10.
The new law will abolish regional health agencies and merge the governing bodies of 182 hospitals, long-term care homes and rehabilitation centres into 34 mega-boards. It’s a centralization of control under the guise of cost savings. But from the start, the ill-conceived law conflated community representation with bureaucracy. The result is reforms that will put distance between patients and the health establishments that serve them.
