Dubé reform | The APTS says new Santé Québec boss faces four major challenges

April 29, 2024

Longueuil – The APTS (Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux) takes note of Geneviève Biron’s nomination as head of Santé Québec. The union hopes to meet Ms. Biron in the near future and says that she will face four major challenges.

“The future of our health and social service system is being entrusted to Geneviève Biron, who not only comes from the private sector, but has even directly competed with our public system – especially in the laboratories and medical imaging sector,” said APTS president Robert Comeau. “We’ll give her a chance to show us what she can do in her new job. But she faces some major challenges, the first one being to demonstrate that she understands and supports the culture of the public system.”

The APTS believes that as Québec’s largest employer, Ms. Biron will have to quickly establish what she thinks it means to be an employer of choice. She will also have to present her vision of local management and reassure employees that there will be no return to management methods imported from the private sector in the past, such as lean management or the Toyota way, which caused severe damage to the public system.

Plan Santé: a plan about anything but health

Ms. Biron’s appointment marks the beginning of the Santé Québec agency – a major, and deeply worrisome, transition for Québec’s health and social services system. Santé Québec will create the greatest level of centralization the system has ever known. It will now be run like a business by a handful of managers, some of whom come from the private sector.

“Dubé’s health care reform, the Plan Santé, is actually a plan about anything but health,” added the APTS president. “It’s got greater openness than ever to privatization, patient-focused funding, and private mini-hospitals. We’re seeing withdrawal on the government’s part – with ministerial responsibilities being transferred to Santé Québec – and social services are once again threatened with drowning in a hospital-centric model. Quebecers have every reason to be worried about the impact of this umpteenth reform, whether in the short, middle or long term.”

The APTS notes that it is still possible to do things well by listening to employees and developing the system so as to provide Quebecers with high-quality services that are accessible and entirely public. This will mean working with all of the system’s stakeholders to implement Santé Québec.

The APTS

The APTS (Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux) represents more than 65,000 members who play a key role in ensuring that health and social services institutions run smoothly. Our members provide a wide range of services for all Quebecers, including diagnostic, rehabilitation, nutrition, psychosocial intervention, clinical support, and prevention services.