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Some experts are sounding the alarm over the Quebec government\u2019s proposal to merge two flagship health agencies as part of a broader plan to reduce bureaucracy and increase state efficiency.<\/p>\n
Bill 7, tabled last month by Treasury Board President France-\u00c9laine Duranceau, is designed to save $35 million, primarily by cutting 220 full-time positions, including about 100 in the health-care system. <\/p>\n
The bill would fuse the Institut national de sant\u00e9 publique du Qu\u00e9bec (INSPQ) and the Institut national d\u2019excellence en sant\u00e9 et en services sociaux (INESSS) into a single new institute.<\/p>\n
It would transfer the activities of the three INSPQ medical biology laboratories to Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, while assigning the functions of organ and tissue donation co-ordination currently exercised by Transplant Qu\u00e9bec to H\u00e9ma-Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n
However, not everyone agrees with the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Olivier Jacques, a professor specializing in health policy at Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, recently raised concerns with the government, saying he sees no clear line between potential savings and the cost to services as each agency serves its own important function.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have difficulty to see what is the intent of policymakers there,\u201d Jacques told CBC News.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not much money to save, and there\u2019s not much efficiency gains to have and, in contrast, it could be a real issue for public health in the province in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing the old saying, he said, “if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Problems exposed during pandemic<\/p>\n
In a statement issued this week, Duranceau\u2019s office insists the merger will fix problems exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pandemic revealed the limits of a fragmented model in which the lack of co-ordination between the two institutes hindered the speed of the response on the ground,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n
The statement says that by combining these areas of expertise, the government can work more efficiently, make responsibilities clearer and better meet the health system\u2019s current and future needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s intention remains to fully preserve the missions of both organizations, which are highly complementary,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
It added that the government has \u201cheard the concerns\u201d raised by INSPQ senior officials during parliamentary consultations and that teams across affected ministries are reviewing submitted briefs \u201cto assess whether follow-up is warranted to improve the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preventive care always loses, expert says<\/p>\n
Jacques said he\u2019s not convinced fusing these agencies will create more efficiency. <\/p>\n
Neither is his colleague, Nathalie Clavel, assistant professor specializing in health services management at Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n
They both spoke to a parliamentary committee about the bill last week, expressing several concerns with the bill \u2014 including the fragmentation of key services and the reduction of preventive care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764684733_498_default.jpg\")
Olivier Jacques, a professor specializing in health policy at Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, says he doesn’t agree with fusing key public health agencies. (Caroline Perron\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
In a later interview with CBC News, Jacques expressed concerns about the possible loss of expertise and prevention with, for example, the research and INSPQ labs going to Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n
Public health is about improving the population\u2019s health in the future, whereas health-care problems are acute in the present, he explained. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am really concerned that the budgets would be much more allocated toward the curative functions related to INESSS to the detriment of the preventive, long-term oriented functions of the INSPQ,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Because one agency is controlling the budget, short-term curative care may ultimately get the bulk of funding, he said, adding his research shows when the two budgets are in competition, preventive care always loses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the effectiveness of prevention, he said even the public prefers to see funding go toward the immediate curative-care crisis rather than prevention. <\/p>\n
While he sees the merger as a mistake, he explained, separate budgets should at least be maintained for the two functions if the government goes through with it. <\/p>\n
He also says there is no proof that other governments have successfully done the same merger.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think the fusion is a good idea,” he said. “It’s two institutions that have two very different perspectives and two very different missions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-164222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}