August 25, 2011

In parliamentary committee yesterday, on August 24, 2011, the Director General of the Montreal Agence de la santé et des services sociaux, David Levine, made a commitment to eliminate wait times longer than 24 hours in emergency rooms by 2015.

How does Mr. Levine plan to fulfill this commitment within four years? Bear in mind that the Charest government, eight years after making this its main priority, still has not succeeded in reversing a trend which, while it was a cause for concern at the time, is now absolutely dramatic.

Why now, in 2011, should anyone believe in the magical idea that the problem will be eliminated by 2015, when the same concerns had persisted for many years?

Hearing Mr. Levine reel off a series of conditions over which he has very little control but which necessarily must be fulfilled for any hope of achieving his objective, I had the impression instead that I was observing someone preparing a list of reasons that will serve to justify a new failure in 2015.

Does Mr. Levine really expect any support from his Minister, Yves Bolduc, who was still declaring a few days ago that the workforce in place in the health network is very capable of making up for the effects of the staff shortage because “this is a network with people with heart”? A Health Minister’s job description requires more than wishful thinking!

Mr. Minister, I challenge you to meet one of the all too many healthcare professionals on the verge of burnout and explain why, after redoubling her efforts for so many years, she will now have to quadruple and even quintuple these efforts – because she has heart.

You can bet that she’ll have an answer to this question: “What about you, Mr. Minister? Do you have a heart?”