Christian Dube promises to 'gradually wean' the health network away from the private sector

Health Minister Christian Dubé at question period on Oct. 22, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot)

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé promised on Tuesday to put the brakes on the expansion of private health care by aiming to "wean off" it.

He said that 3 per cent of doctors in Quebec practise privately, sometimes sporadically, and that it was not too late to reverse the trend.

Dubé made these remarks at the Salon rouge as part of a two-hour questioning session requested by Québec solidaire (QS) MNA Vincent Marissal.

Marissal welcomed the minister's intention, but pointed out that it was the CAQ government that had fed the ‘monster’ that the private sector had become with ‘growth hormones.’

There are currently nearly 800 disaffiliated doctors in Quebec, compared with 12 in the rest of Canada, according to QS.

The minister is an ‘arsonist firefighter’ said Joël Arseneau, the Parti Québécois health critic.

“We're opening the door wide to the private sector, we're praising it, and today we're saying, ‘Maybe we've gone too far,’” he said.

On Sunday, Dubé announced his intention to legislate to require new doctors to practise in the public system for a certain number of years.

At the same time, the College of Physicians set out its own principles regarding the private health sector, calling for “the expansion of the private health sector to be suspended immediately.”

This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press Nov. 5, 2024.