CAQ head François Legault made the announcement Saturday in east Montreal, in Anjou-Louis-Riel, and says the first two clinics will be open by 2025 in east Montreal and Quebec City. The seven-day-a-week medical centers will include a family medicine clinic, a 24-hour emergency room for minor ailments and day surgery, as well as other essential health services Legault describes the proposed centers as intermediaries between family clinics and large hospitals that could reduce pressure on the health network. Outgoing Health Minister Christian Dubé expects the centers could lead to a 30 to 40 percent reduction in emergency room traffic in their respective regions. “If we want to change the health network, we have to change the recipe, innovate and reposition the private sector,” said Legault. “For us, the private sector must be free for the patient […] but it is certain that in the end the government will pay.” He acknowledged that the use of the word “private” when it comes to health care was thin, but noted that 20 percent of services in the province are already provided by the private sector. Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois criticized Legault’s plan, saying that if the private sector were working on our health network, we would know about it. “There has never been a more private sector [intervention] in our health system. Private agencies are failing us. Our private CHSLDs are failing us,” he said Saturday afternoon during a campaign rally in Rimouski.
