Private health care 'top gun' to lead Santé Québec, making unions wary of changes to public system

Quebec has found its "top gun" to run its new health-care agency, but not everyone in the province is thrilled about who will be in charge.

On Tuesday, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced that Geneviève Biron, former CEO of Biron Groupe Santé, would be taking the reins of Santé Quebec, the agency that will oversee day-to-day operations of the province's health-care system.

Frédéric Abergel, the current CEO of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), will serve as vice-president of operations at Santé Québec.

"I have the ambition to offer Quebecers the health system they deserve," Biron said Monday.

Biron says she will put her 30 years of experience in private health care to use for the benefit of Quebecers. She says that knowledge of customer service, management and incorporating new technologies will bring innovation to Quebec health care.

But while some Qubecers are backing the government's pick to shake things up for the better in the health-care system, public sector unions are concerned about how Biron's time in the private sector will impact public health care and its workers in the province.

'Entrusting our public system to the wolves'

Caroline Senneville, president of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), which represents workers in Quebec's health-care system, says that taking charge of the public system will require Biron to change her mentality and approach.

"She won't be treating clients. She will be treating the whole population of Quebec … no matter their means, no matter where they live," Senneville said.

The fact that Abergel, who comes from the public sector, will be answering to Biron, is more reason for concern, signalling that the private sector approach will take precedence over the public sector within the agency, according to Senneville.

Réjean Leclerc, president of the CSN's federation of health-care and social service workers (FSSS-CSN), had stronger words.

"By appointing an entrepreneur at the head of Santé Québec, the CAQ is openly entrusting our public system to the wolves of the private sector," he said.

Julie Bouchard, the president of the province's' largest nurses' union, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), says Biron can try to shake things up, but "if health-care professionals leave for the private sector because of horrible working conditions, it will do nothing."

Getting results is what matters, says patient advocate

Paul Brunet, a patient advocate and president of the Conseil pour la protection des malades, is more optimistic. When it comes to Biron's experience in the private sector, he doesn't see it as necessarily a bad thing.

What really matters, he says, is getting results.

"I don't think being from the private sector is a sin per se," he said.

"We have record highs in terms of waiting lists for home care, for long-term facilities at the hospital, surgeries, mental illness appointments. We need more action, more efficiency," he said, adding that he will throw his support behind Biron if she is able to reduce long wait times across the health-care system.

Nadia Girard, professor of human resources and organization at the Université du Quebec à Montréal, says Biron will have to prove herself in running an organization much larger than what she has done in the past, but is comforted by the presence of Abergel as her right-hand man.

Biron left Biron Groupe Santé in 2021 and no longer has holdings there, according to the Quebec Health Ministry.