---  Hospital plan needs listening 

 

       Fred Ryan’s editorial (Oct. 23, 2020) on the promised new Gatineau hospital –maybe in 2030 – was particularly incisive. The CAQ representatives in our region including Mathieu Lacombe, Minister responsible for the Outaouais, and Robert Bussière, member for Gatineau, would be well advised to pay attention to his proposals. The pipe- dream of a new 400 bed hospital in our region may be a nice flag to wave at electors, but not at the price of no new nurses, of centralization and of continued heavy-handed, authoritarian bureaucracy in the CISSSO. 

       It may seem cute to hold the mirage of a lovely new hospital in front of our eyes, but mark my words, if the CAQ wants to make inroads in the Outaouais, listen to what the citizens have been saying for ages with regard to the retarded Outaouais health system:  provide us with adequate personnel, decentralize, get rid of the incompetent bureaucrats. Fred Ryan lays out the game plan and the rationale.  Thank you.

John E. Trent, Senior Fellow, Centre on Governance

University of Ottawa