The minister, who wanted to be king

Josée Legault

Tuesday, 11 July, 2017 05:00

UPDATE
Tuesday, 11 July, 2017 05:00

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As we know, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. However, corruption is not always a question of money. Much more often, too much power in the hands of one man eventually corrupt his own judgment.

A patent case is Gaétan Barrette, the omnipuissant minister of Health and social Services. His ways of showoff authoritarian weaken a public system is already weakened by the first hunt of the deficit-zero under Lucien Bouchard.

For the past three years, this is the perfect storm. Combined with austerity, the hypercentralisation of the services under the direct control of Dr. Barrette has succeeded in silencing the managers. “Please do not disturb the minister,” is their motto of survival.

The missing steps of any counterweight as possible in the health care system does the rest. The most vulnerable écopent more than the other. If it is true that one can die ” with dignity “, age or disability “with dignity” becomes a luxury.

Tandem charges

While under the tandem of doctors Couillard and Module, the doctors – especially specialists -are passed to the cashier, in-home care often lack the call. Thousands of caregivers and family caregivers are also left to fend for themselves.

In an ageing society, it is very serious. Result : the increasing use and discreet private installs at home. At least, for those who have the means.

On the whole the work of the minister Barrette, the former liberal Health minister, Claude Castonguay, was him-even the report last march : “the reform is designed and imposed by Gaétan Barrette is a failure. Some call this failure a disaster. “

Among other tragedies in waiting, the “case” of the hospital Sainte-Justine testifies to the perverse effects of the “reforms” Bar. For months, the doctors, pharmacists and dentists from Sainte-Justine sounding the alarm, not for themselves or their remuneration, but for their patients.

Defend the patients

In a system where omerta is rife, they have the courage to speak loud and clear, but the minister remains deaf. With reason, the medical staff fears that the grouping foolish to Sainte-Justine and the mega CHUM lead to a merger devastating.

Already that this grouping is contrary to the mission single pediatric Sainte-Justine and a threat to its recognized expertise in the world, a fusion with the BOYFRIEND to end this institution, essential to the health of children in Québec.

This disease of the hypercentralisation of which suffers from the Dr Module is used in part to save money on the backs of patients, but it also serves to strengthen its own power on a system that he likes to deconstruct it as if it was his personal game of Lego.

Disrobed of the CAQ, Mr. Barrette does what he wants under Philippe Couillard. It is ready to Louis XIV said ” the State is me “. A maxim that the minister Barrette seems to have made his own at the expense of the common good.