The patient-rights group of the McGill University Health Centre is upset that it will have no say in the hiring of the new head of the MUHC, and some members are worried that Health Minister Gaétan Barrette will ultimately approve someone who won’t hesitate to make deeper budget cuts to the hospital network.
A selection committee has been interviewing candidates since Monday to succeed outgoing MUHC executive director Normand Rinfret, who is set to retire on Sept. 2. The Montreal Gazette has learned that two candidates are under serious consideration: Benoit Morin, head of the West Island health authority, and Caroline Barbir, in charge of Laval’s health network.
Morin has faced intense scrutiny by staff at St. Mary’s Hospital for his decision last year to eliminate vascular surgery from the Côte-des-Neiges institution as part of budget cuts. A patient who later arrived at St. Mary’s in need of emergency vascular surgery was turned away and transferred to the MUHC superhospital but died before he could undergo an operation.
Barbir, formerly executive director of the Centre hospitalier de Lanaudière, was appointed by Barrette on April 1, 2015, to lead the Laval health authority under his administrative and cost-cutting reform of the public system.
On June 22, the MUHC Central Users Committee appealed to Claudio Bussandri, the chairman of the board of the MUHC, to have a patient’s representative sit on the hiring committee.
Bussandri responded on Monday afternoon to say that the selection committee has already been formed.
“We’ve been frozen out,” said Amy Ma, co-chair of the users’ committee. “We’re disappointed. We, the citizens of Quebec, will pay the salary of whoever is going to be the head of this hospital.
“It’s like they deliberately stalled it long enough and now the (hiring) process is already underway, so we’ve been shut out of it, effectively,” Ma added.
“It would have ben nice for a (patient’s representative) who has experience to be at that table to make sure that whoever becomes the future head of the MUHC understands that it was built to serve us, the patients and the families.”
Pierre Hurteau, the other co-chair of the users’ committee, expressed concern that Barrette will approve a candidate who can bend to his will in making more cuts.
“Knowing the minister’s reaction to the MUHC deficit, for sure I have fears,” Hurteau said.
The MUHC reported a $41-million deficit in its last fiscal year ending in April despite the fact that Rinfret implemented $50 million in cuts.
Bussandri did not respond to a request for comment. Richard Fahey, the newly-appointed head of human resources, legal affairs and communications at the MUHC, said in an email that the hospital network is following the law in recommending Rinfret’s successor to Barrette.
The MUHC has hired a headhunting firm to scout potential candidates. That firm contacted Dr. Pierre Gfeller, a McGill graduate, who is head of Montreal’s north-end health authority. Gfeller, however, was not interested in submitting his candidacy.
Another name that has circulated is Guy Rouleau, associate director-general of the MUHC’s neurological mission. In an email, Rouleau said: “I did not submit my candidacy and as far as I know I am not being considered for the position by the powers that be.”
Four sources with knowledge of the hiring process confirmed that Morin and Barbir are candidates. The sources did not wish to have their names published because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.
Morin and Barbir did not respond to email queries left with them since Monday. Fahey would neither confirm nor deny their candidacies: “As you know and by definition, the selection process is confidential. We cannot thus comment on potential candidates.”
Ma urged the hiring committee to recommend candidates to Barrette who will “champion the interests of the MUHC community” and be sensitive to the needs of its patients who come from “diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds as well as socio-economic backgrounds.”
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