The austerity measures are being driven by concerns that American bond-rating agencies might lower Quebec’s credit rating, The Gazette has learned.
Santé Québec is ordering hospitals and other facilities across the province to slash nearly $1.5 billion from their budgets in the coming months — an amount that is 50 per cent greater than previously reported and which managers fear will result in even longer wait times for surgery.
With Santé Québec set to take over the province’s public medical system on Dec. 1, health-care managers are scrambling to cut expenditures without affecting clinical care, but they concede that will be impossible, given that 70 per cent of their budgets are fixed payroll costs.
“At some point there are going to be consequences. I mean, it’s not a matter necessarily of cutting service, but this could result in longer wait times,” a senior administrator said in an interview.
The source, who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly, warned of another possible consequence.
“You can try to reduce overtime, things like that, which are all perfectly legal and perfectly acceptable labour practices. But if you try to save on overtime, for example, does that mean the work that was going to get done doesn’t get done?
“So, you know, if you were paying a (personal support worker) in a long-term care facility to work an extra couple of hours on a certain shift to bridge two shifts, does that mean residents in the long-term care facility may not get the attention they need?”
Added another health-care manager: “It’s false to pretend that it can only be administrative and not clinical. In the health system the two are tightly knitted together. I was expecting funds for urgent renovations for a project, which now won’t get done. It will force us to cut services for clientele safety. There are a hundred examples like this.”
The government previously absorbed hospital deficits that were caused by inflation. In a meeting this month, Santé Québec told health-care managers that they must find savings in their budgets to absorb all inflation-related expenses, which have amounted to about $600 million. Regional health authorities (known by their French abbreviation CIUSSS) have also been ordered to cut their spending by an additional $900 million.
Jean Nicolas Aubé, a spokesperson for Santé Québec, was not in a position to comment on the figure of $1.5 billion in cuts.
“We’re asking establishments to respect their budgets, but it’s a demand by the government,” Aubé said on Friday. “It’s the law.”
Geneviève Biron, executive director of Santé Québec, told The Gazette this week that the private option to decrease the surgical backlog “is a very interesting suggestion.”
However, a health-care manager pointed out that private surgical clinics are costlier than the public system. The manager also took issue with a comment Biron made that health-care spending has doubled in the past six years while the general population has grown by only 10 per cent.
“That’s ludicrous,” the manager said. “It doesn’t take into account the aging of the population and its increased medical needs. That’s what driving up costs, not the increase in the general population.”