October 29, 2013

An article entitled Réseau de la santé: 30 % plus de cadres en 10 ans, that appeared in the October 28 edition of La Presse revolts me! The healthcare professionals are already expected to perform miracles while struggling with difficult working conditions, often to the detriment of their personal lives, and the growing number of managers is no more, no less than a slap in the face for them.

Again this summer, the FIQ denounced the irregularities in the granting of contracts to firms such as Proaction and Fujitsu, and stressed the divesting of responsibilities by the administrators in the institutions in favour of these private businesses. Remember that these firms come along with the managers, at great cost, to perform the tasks that should be carried out by the administrators in the health network. Are the people of Québec not entitled to ask what purpose does the appointment of all those administrators serve if, in turn, they need to delegate a significant portion of their tasks to firms from outside the network? Taxpayers thus find themselves paying more than once for the same work, while the juice is squeezed out of the network professionals and the managers reduce the nursing staff under the pretext of budget cuts.

This recent article only attests, once again, to the “laisser-faire” attitude that has been implemented in the health network over the last few years. Minister Réjean Hébert must, without any further delay, take stock of the situation and stop, once and for all, the waste of public funds by the explosive proliferation in the number of managers and the sub-contracting of organization of work to private companies that are completely disconnected from the setting. Must he be reminded that there are already healthcare professionals who know their work and that a better organization of work is dear to their hearts?