{"id":518704,"date":"2026-03-12T08:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T08:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518704\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T08:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T08:06:16","slug":"quebecs-unified-health-care-agency-fights-to-prove-its-worth-after-15-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518704\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec\u2019s unified health care agency fights to prove its worth after 15 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Genevi\u00e8ve Biron, head of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, in her office in Montreal. Ms. Biron argues the agency is helping improve health care services and make the system more efficient, but critics say it\u2019s another layer of bureaucracy.Andrej Ivanov\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

In recent years, more than 70 different training modules for handwashing have circulated through Quebec hospitals and other health centres. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not because there are dozens of ways to wash one\u2019s hands. The problem is that different facilities were duplicating work. <\/p>\n

This is one small example of a larger problem Genevi\u00e8ve Biron is trying to fix. As the CEO of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, a Crown corporation created just over a year ago<\/a> to operate Quebec\u2019s<\/a> health care network, she has been tasked with cutting costs, boosting efficiency and improving access. <\/p>\n

\u201cThings were done in silos before,\u201d Ms. Biron said in a recent interview. \u201cA unified health system is really a great way to be able to do things differently in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governments across Canada are trying to solve intractable problems around health care delivery as they grapple with long wait times, staffing shortages and the expansion of private health care. In 2023, Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault<\/a> bet on Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec to fix a system that struggles to provide timely access to care. His is the latest in a series of Quebec governments that have looked to ever-increasing centralization as a key to health care reform. <\/p>\n

Family doctor study finds disparities in primary care across Canada<\/a><\/p>\n

But critics say the Crown corporation is simply another layer of bureaucracy, and with a provincial election just months away, its future is uncertain. As governments in Alberta and Britain move in the opposite direction and dismantle their own centralized health care operators, Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec is looking to prove the value of having one agency steering the ship. <\/p>\n

Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec took the reins of the province\u2019s health network in December, 2024, absorbing 30 regional authorities into one organization and becoming the sole employer of 327,000 workers. The government instructed the new Crown corporation to eliminate a projected $1.5-billion deficit in the health care system for 2024-25. <\/p>\n

Fifteen months later, Ms. Biron said the agency is already showing results. The number of people waiting more than a year for surgery is down by more than half, and wait lists for services such as child protection and mental health are also down. Meanwhile, the training tools for handwashing are being consolidated. <\/p>\n

The Crown corporation ended its 2024-25 fiscal year with an operating deficit of $240-million, due in part to cuts worth $750-million and additional funding from the province. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can say it\u2019s really under control, which is not the situation that was there prior to Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s arrival,\u201d Ms. Biron said. <\/p>\n

But unions say cost-cutting has come at the expense of jobs and services, and that shorter wait times for surgery are because of an increased reliance on the private sector. To date, Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec has \u201cincreased bureaucracy, increased the number of managers and reduced services on the ground,\u201d said R\u00e9jean Leclerc, president of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration de la sant\u00e9 et des services sociaux, a union representing 120,000 health care workers. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Canadians are protecting the mirage of single-tier health care. It doesn\u2019t exist<\/a><\/p>\n

This is not the first top-down overhaul of Quebec\u2019s health care network. The 30 regional authorities supplanted by Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec were formed in 2015 from the merger of 182 local health agencies. Those agencies were themselves created a decade earlier from the fusion of formerly independent hospitals, long-term care centres and rehab centres. <\/p>\n

There was a \u201ccertain logic\u201d to the centralization, said R\u00e9gis Blais, a professor in the University of Montreal\u2019s School of Public Health. \u201cSome patients can fall between the cracks,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we place these institutions under the same umbrella, services will be better coordinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mr. Legault\u2019s government didn\u2019t need a new agency to unify health care delivery across the province, Prof. Blais said. He believes Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec is an \u201cunnecessary duplication\u201d of the provincial health ministry. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a structure that is as cumbersome as the ministry and is becoming even more so,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mr. Leclerc said Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec isn\u2019t nimble enough to respond to the needs of Quebec\u2019s various regions. While Montreal deals with a large unhoused population, he said, people on the Gasp\u00e9 Peninsula are more concerned about the distances they must travel to receive care. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many disparities that we cannot have a one-size-fits-all direction,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Alberta was the first Canadian province to fully integrate its health care system with the creation of Alberta Health Services in 2008. <\/p>\n

Alberta using selective data to mask health care failings, Auditor-General says<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2021, an external review of Alberta\u2019s early pandemic response found that having a single health authority created \u201cstructural advantages\u201d in managing the first wave of COVID-19, as AHS had ready access to provincewide data. <\/p>\n

But Premier Danielle Smith has blamed AHS, in part, for the province\u2019s decision to impose COVID-era restrictions, and vowed to overhaul the health system when she became leader of the United Conservative Party in 2022. Her government has since dismantled AHS and created four organizations to oversee different facets of the health care system.<\/p>\n

In the U.K., meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced last year he will abolish NHS England, which delivers health services in that country, with many of its functions to return to the health department. He said the move would cut bureaucracy and free up money for frontline services. <\/p>\n

Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec is facing similar existential threats, as Quebec\u2019s governing party, the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec, could be wiped out in the next election, scheduled for October. The Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and Quebec Liberals have criticized the agency for a lack of concrete results. <\/p>\n

Ms. Biron said Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec should be given a chance. \u201cI think we just need to be realistic. We\u2019re just a year old.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Myles Leslie, an associate professor at the University of Calgary\u2019s School of Public Policy, said all governments struggle with delivering health care, and there\u2019s no consensus about whether a top-down or regional approach is best. Instead, the pendulum swings back and forth based on the political mood of the day. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese problems are wicked,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not solvable. They\u2019re only manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Genevi\u00e8ve Biron, head of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, in her office in Montreal. Ms. Biron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,79,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":["post-518704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}