The PQ calls for the decentralisation of Optilab to allow lab tests to be conducted locally
The PQ calls for the decentralisation of Optilab to allow lab tests to be conducted locally
The MNA for Îles-de-la-Madeleine and health and social services critic for the Parti Québécois, Joël Arseneau, denounced what he describes as the negative effects of the Optilab project, which centralizes laboratory tests and diminishes hospital autonomy.
“The fears we’ve expressed for years are being materialize today and the impacts on patients in regional hospitals are real,” said the PQ in a news release. “The centralization of laboratory analyzes has harmful consequences for patients: longer delays before a diagnosis, longer stays in the emergency room and in hospitalization units, loss of blood samples and delays in the management of patients. If the Minister of Health has a real desire to decentralize the network, he must start with the decentralization of the Optilab laboratories and thus restore the necessary autonomy to the Outaouais hospital centers to manage their laboratory analyses,” the PQ said.
The Optilab reform drastically reduces the ability of hospitals to perform analyzes and laboratory tests directly in their establishments. “According to hospitals, the analysis of samples can now take from 24 hours to two months rather than a few hours. The result: our public health network is moving away from its mission of offering local and quality services to the population, and it is extremely worrying to see the laxes of the CAQ in this regard. For a government that has promised to decentralize the network,” Arseneau said.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented mobilization of doctors, unions and experts in favor of the decentralization. What we are asking that the CAQ restore the autonomy and agility required of hospitals so that they can decide for themselves, and offer laboratory services based on regional needs, their expertise and patients. This is how we start a real decentralization project, “ said Joël Arseneau. The Parti Québécois also deplores what they described as the government’s stubbornness in maintaining a system that does not work, especially in the context of the emergency room crisis: “The CAQ has chosen to perpetuate the liberal heritage of centralization, which in this case proves to be dangerously ineffective for many patients and many regions of Quebec,” he says.
