The pandemic paid off for surgery DIX30, which received at least $51 million in orders in 2020 after hospital load shedding. Québec wants to sustain this shift towards private operations in the coming years.
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Brossard appears to have gotten the lion’s share of government contracts to increase its capacity when hospitals were dealing with COVID-19.
Another well-known private clinic, RocklandMD, benefited from a more than $8 million contract that allowed the Integrated University Health and Social Services Center (CIUSSS) in east Montreal Island to “reduce wait times for day surgeries or surgical specialties” at the beginning of the pandemic.
The Opmédic group in Laval also signed a contract worth almost $5 million to relieve the Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) in Laval.
Some of the contracts include options for more than one year.
This is an explosion in the use of the private sector: the healthcare network had just three partner clinics before the pandemic, compared to around twenty today. In 2017, Le Journal reported that the public network had cost $9.2 million to operate in the private sector.
Little transparency
This is a partial representation of the amounts awarded to specialized medical centers.
“After several checks, we do not have the amounts of these contracts with the MSSS,” the Department of Health and Human Services (MSSS) says in response to our Parliamentary Office.
A request to the CISSS and CIUSSS resulted in a multitude of responses, some of which only indicated the amount spent, while others directed our request to a request for access to information, which may experience delays of up to 30 days.
The compilation of Le Journal
comes from the Electronic Tendering System, in which some contracts concluded in 2020 have just been published. Others might be missing.
A more efficient system
The managing director of the DIX30 surgery emphasizes that he only offers publicly paid interventions.
“We are the equivalent of a radiology clinic or FMG [groupe de médecine de famille] ‘ argues Normand Laberge.
He praises the efficiency of the private model.
“Here the doctors tell us: ‘I do two more operations a day than in the hospital,'” he confides.
This can be explained by the fact that, according to him, the teams are exclusively dedicated to the operative business, while hospitals sometimes have to interrupt their work, for example to treat a traffic accident.
some contracts
◆ Surgery Dix30
- 12 million dollars CISSS from Montérégie-Ost
- $6.2M CISSS from Montérégie-Ouest
- $10.8M CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
- $22.5M CISSS by Montérégie Center
◆ Rockland®
- $8.1M CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
Source: Electronic Tendering System
Certain privately operated patients are reimbursed by the state
Citizens have found a way to have the private sector operate more quickly while getting some of their costs reimbursed by Quebec.
In a March decision, the Administrative Labor Court (TAT) forced the Commission on Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) to reimburse part of the $14,660 spent by an employee conducting a private operation.
Before the court, the young woman explained “that she made this choice because the public has to wait a long time for the same procedure. She wanted to recover and get back to work as soon as possible.”
The worker, who slipped on an ice surface as part of her job, required “reconstructive surgery on her left shoulder.”
doctor status
CNESST initially refused to reimburse her for her private procedure, arguing that the surgeon had the status of a doctor participating in the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec.
However, the TAT ruled that “the status of the surgeon at the time of the worker’s operation here does not affect her entitlement to reimbursement of part of the cost”.
Then the court cited several other decisions showing that the case law is clear: A worker can be reimbursed by CNESST for private operations up to the amount provided for in the public network. He must pay any difference himself.
Go ahead of others
A labor lawyer who wishes to remain anonymous explains that these reimbursements from CNESST are quite common for private surgeries.
One of the plaintiffs’ arguments is the ability to save on stoppage money costs by returning to work more quickly.
Some may see this as an unfair situation as they believe workers get a pass while others wait in public, but the advocate believes we must avoid merging the two files.
“We have a health and safety plan that is very good for the workers,” she says. After the delays that can occur with operations, I believe that we should not mix the two, it’s a different debate that concerns access to care. »
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