Two years following their appointment by the health minister, MUHC’s independent board members have quit due to Gaetan Barrette’s apparent reluctance to communicate with them.
In a statement released Monday, ten of 19 board members announced that they were at an impasse with the minister, and their inability to meet with Barrette is affecting their ability to be an effective team.
“Minister Barette, however, has for many months refused to engage with us, ignoring our requests for meetings, not responding to correspondence and refusing to share reports,” the members said, in a statement released to the media by the MUHC.
“Instead, with his threats of trusteeship and his questioning both in public and in private of our competency, it has become clear that Minister Barrette views the Board of Directors as a stumbling block preventing the MUHC from reaching its full potential in the health care network,” they said. “It is for this reasons that all of us have decided to resign as independent members of the board”, they conclude.
The board members also allege that Barrette and his associates refused to reveal the results of two specific government reports: the Desjardins report and the Joshi report—which individually tackled issues in hospital trusteeship and budget reform.
The resigning members are Chairman Claudio Bussandri, Gail Campbell, Marie Giguere, David Laidley, Teresa Pacheco, Robert Rabinovitch, Janis Riven, Glenn Rourke, Melissa Sonberg, and Norman Spencer.
The MUHC says Martine Alfonso -- the Associate President and Executive Director (PDGA) of the MUHC -- has been appointed as Interim President and Executive Director.
Rourke, a board member for four years, said that there was a notable change in management before and after the introduction of Bill 10.
"We think that the job that we have done was quite reasonable -- we've had good feedback from the ministry -- our problem is the way the minister has handled not dealing with us," Rourke said.
The abrupt move leaves one of the province’s largest health care bodies in an administrative limbo.
“It’s their choice— I’m taking note of that," Barrette told CTV Montreal. He disputes the board's claims, saying he's thankful for their service -- but he's not entirely surprised by their decision.
"And again, you know the MUHC is a very positive, work-class institution that is full of talent [and] that is providing top-level care, and it will remain so when a new board will be appointed,” he explained.
The appointment of the new board is expected to happen "as soon as possible," and Barrette says he will work closely with the committees involved.
"But not before we've made the right choices," he said.
Barrette also said that under no circumstances will the MUHC be placed under trusteeship -- despite recommendations made to the contrary in reports issued to the health ministry.
The MUHC has been without a permanent Executive Director for ten months, since Normand Rinfret retired last September.
In the statement, the independent members of the board acknowledged the difficulties of “steering” the MUHC over the last five years, in the midst of major transformations and the largest hospital move in the history of Canada.
The mass resignations come with mixed feelings: the MUHC Users' Committee says that the ongoing dispute between the board and the ministry has hurt patients.
"There's only one man that seems to run the show, and it's the minister," said Pierre Hurteau, co-president of the Users' Committee. "The board has no power. The board cannot be heard by the minister. We as patients had a press conference in late May and Minster Barrette said he would like to meet with us-- but he hasn't."
Others say the resignation might accomplish what the board set out to do: end an impasse that has dragged on far too long.
