(Quebec) The use of private surgery clinics during the pandemic cost the Quebec government $200 million. The last health crisis, the Legault government now wants to pay less for the use of the private sector and will tighten the rules for calls for tenders.
Some 162,000 interventions were carried out in private clinics during the health crisis, which cost the Quebec state $200 million. These data were revealed on Tuesday during the study of health budget appropriations.
During the pandemic, Quebec entered into around 30 over-the-counter contracts with around 15 specialized medical clinics (CMS) to limit the effects of load shedding in hospitals on surgical waiting lists.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dominique Savoie, said Tuesday that the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) is developing a circular which will precisely regulate the use of the private sector.
The MSSS wants to take advantage of the expiry of the contracts concluded under the health emergency to tighten the rules of its future calls for tenders which must be launched by the summer to renew the contracts with private clinics. Ms. Savoie said the goal is to lower the bill while the Legault government wants to step on the accelerator to reduce waiting lists.
Christian Dubé is also seeking to reach an agreement with the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec (FMSQ) to establish common targets to be achieved in order to return to pre-pandemic expectation levels. The use of CMS is “in front of us for a long time,” said Assistant Deputy Minister for the General Directorate of Academic, Medical, Nursing and Pharmaceutical Affairs, Stéphane Bergeron.
Bergeron said 62 operating rooms are still closed across the province due to workforce issues. In Quebec, the activity rate for block operations is around 78%.
To reduce costs, the MSSS will invite health establishments in Greater Montreal to come together to go to a call for tenders, explained Ms. Savoie. By proceeding in this way, we will increase the volume of surgeries which will, we hope, have an effect on the price.
“Let’s say for cataract, [the CIUSSS] Centre-Sud and Nord-de-L’Île, they will get together to get a better price rather than each signing a contract that was not always the same”, illustrated the deputy minister as an example. “The demands and requirements varied a lot,” Ms. Savoie added, referring to contracts made during the pandemic.
The circular will also “frame the costs” by specialty. Ms. Savoie let it be known that these costs will resemble what is done to the public.
Despite the request of MP Vincent Marissal, Minister Christian Dubé refused to make public the costs by specialty of the 162,000 surgeries performed. It was at this time that Ms. Savoie claimed that the approximately 162,000 surgeries have cost the Quebec state $200 million since 2020.
Another novelty, the next calls for tenders will contain a non-solicitation clause to prevent the CMS from coming to recruit nursing staff within the public health network.
The operations carried out in the private sector would cost up to two and a half times more expensive than in the public, showed unpublished government data unveiled by the Institute for Research and Socio-economic Information (IRIS) on Monday. This data comes from a pilot project launched in 2016 by former Minister of Health, Gaétan Barrette, to compare the costs of five types of surgeries and procedures between the public network and three private clinics: RocklandMD, Chirurgie DIX30 and Opmedic.
At the Blue Room on Tuesday, Christian Dubé said that this data was not comparable with what is currently being done and that his government will go to a call for tenders in the coming weeks to conclude new contracts with the CMS.
