Sophie Kuijper Dickson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The organization responsible for delivering healthcare services in the Outaouais has new leadership.
Marc Bilodeau was hired as president and chief executive officer of the Centre intégré de santé et des services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO) last fall, and began his official four-year term in the position in January.

He was previously Major-General with the Canadian Armed Forces, serving as Surgeon-General.
Bilodeau said he had never been past Luskville, but will be making his first visit to the region in early March to meet with healthcare teams as well as elected officials and community partners.
THE EQUITY accepted CISSSO’s invitation for a 15-minute interview with Bilodeau to ask a few pressing questions ahead of this visit.
Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.

What is your general sense of the healthcare
challenges in the Pontiac region?

There are some challenges that are common to many of our rural areas in the Outaouais region. Obviously proximity to services, the long distances to drive to obtain access to care, a pre-hospital care service is always a challenge as well in remote areas because of the fact that we just don’t have enough ambulances to cover every single village.

Specifically for the Pontiac, there’s obviously a proximity to Ontario. I’m fully aware that many of our Quebecers have just decided to cross the river to receive care on the other side. I’m aware, obviously, that we’ve cut some services in the recent past, including the obstetrics, and
that has created some challenges locally. I’m still learning though. It’s my fifth week on the job and I’m still learning about trying to build a picture of what it looks like and how I can influence it more positively in order to keep providing the care that our citizens of the Pontiac deserve.

Does CISSSO have any plans to make it easier for senior and
low-income community members to access basic services locally,
including gynecology, urology and dermatology appointments?

This is definitely one of my objectives, to assess the needs of the population and make sure that I’m doing my best to support those needs, with the level of resources as close as possible to where they live.

Having said that, human resources in healthcare is a challenge and finding the right professionals that are willing to go to the Pontiac or to relocate there is not as easy as it sounds. We need to manage that scarcity of resources in order to make sure that we do the best we can to support residents of our remote or rural communities.

We need also to be creative in the solutions we are putting in place. You mentioned dermatology. That’s a very good example of services that are proven to be delivered very well virtually. So figuring out ways to make it easy for people, even for older people that are not familiar with technology, needs to be one of our objectives. That would avoid people traveling to the city, but also specialists from the city traveling to the Pontiac if it’s not required.

We lose a lot of our nurses to Ontario. What do you suggest should be done to retain these nurses in our own healthcare system?

As you know, there are some collective agreements being negotiated now at the government level, and there might be new tools in that collective agreement that would facilitate us keeping our nurses and other healthcare professionals on this side of the border.

And if not, then it’s my role to make sure that I’m making sure that the Minister of Health is fully aware of the unique context of the Outaouais region [so we can] work together trying to find solutions
Having said that, it’s not only about compensation, it’s also about work conditions. And for that, we have some levers internally to make sure that we’re making the work conditions as safe and as respectful and as enjoyable as possible, so that at least we can retain the people we have. We have many professionals that are passionate about what they do. All they want is to provide the best care possible to their patients. I think we have a pretty good base to build on with that energy that I’ve seen in our teams already.
All we need to do is be more creative in recruiting more, trying to work with our academic institutions in order to produce more locally as well, and ultimately be able to retain those people through the best work conditions possible.

Some Pontiac residents are worried we will continue to lose critical local services as Quebec’s new healthcare agency, Santé Québec, is rolled out. There are some specific concerns around the fate of the Fort Coulonge/Mansfield CLSC. Is there anything you can say to put these fears to rest?

I’m not tracking any specific challenges to that CLSC. Honestly, I’m new in the job and perhaps it hasn’t reached my level yet. Regarding the new reform, all I have to say is I don’t think it’s going to change significantly, the structure locally or regionally, in terms of how we provide care. There’s going to be even more focus on trying to have more local leadership like what Ms. Nicole Boucher-Larivière is providing to the Pontiac. She reports directly to me as the CEO here and she is my eyes, my ears and my hands on the ground, if you will, trying to make sure that I’m keeping my fingers on the pulse of the Pontiac region and not losing track of the challenges there. So the new reform would just reinforce that proximity of leadership that we’ve established in the last year here in the Outaouais. I think every change is an opportunity and I see that opportunity as an opportunity for us to do better. One of the big focuses of the new law is to improve access, quality and better coordination of services.

Last fall Pontiac saw the creation of a new CISSSO user committee, after six years without one. Some people involved are concerned the work they are doing to represent the healthcare needs on the ground in the region will be rendered useless under Quebec’s new healthcare agency, Santé Québec. Can you address these concerns?

I don’t think they’re going to be less important. I think, perhaps, the role will change a bit, and they are going to be given perhaps more importance. As you know, the current board of directors that we have to help me manage the CISSS de l’Outaouais is going to be transforming to a user committee instead, an institution committee if you will. There’s going to be one board of directors at the provincial level, and all of ours will be more local, to help us improve the quality of the care and make sure that we’re responding to the needs of the population. So I honestly see more opportunities for those committees to contribute, and I look forward to engaging with the users committee of the Pontiac, especially when I visit there in two weeks.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with
readers of THE EQUITY?

I’m here to do my best to improve the access and the quality of the care and social services that are being delivered to the Pontiac population, and ultimately do my best to improve the overall health of the population. We are facing many challenges from a demographic perspective that is making it very challenging to do, but at the same time this is my responsibility, and I sincerely hope that I can make a difference.