Santé Québec delays digital transformation projects

QUEBEC CITY – Santé Québec, the less-than-year-old Crown corporation that oversees the province’s healthcare network, has now postponed one of its digital transformation projects and suspended another, citing budget concerns and issues managing the websites. The announcement comes after months of scrutiny from opposition parties concerning the digital transition. They feared a repeat of the cost overruns and major technical issues seen with the launch of Quebec’s auto insurance board’s website, SAAQclic.

Since April, SAAQclic has been the subject of a public inquiry. “We have to ensure the sound management of public finances,” Geneviève Biron (pictured), head of Santé Québec, said in an interview Friday morning with Radio-Canada’s Tout un matin.

The project being suspended is known as the Système d’information des finances et de l’approvisionnement (SIFA), a system meant to take over supply management and payroll in the healthcare system. In the interview, Biron explained that the project would have gone significantly over budget had they moved forward with it, so it’s temporarily suspended as they wait for authorization to increase the budget.

“We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation of cost overruns,” she said.

A second project, Dossier santé numérique (DSN), which would have centralized patients’ files on an online platform, has been postponed.

In a statement published on the social media platform X on Thursday, Santé-Québec wrote that the decision to put the brakes on both projects was necessary because there are “conditions that aren’t being met,” and the agency doesn’t feel the website will be ready to launch as expected.

It was supposed to be tested in healthcare facilities in the Mauricie and in Montreal starting Nov. 29.

Santé Québec took over both projects last year. According to Radio-Canada, they are now estimated to cost nearly $700 million – double what was planned.

The Autorité des marchés publics, a provincial agency that oversees public contracts, has also been keeping an eye on the digital projects.

According to an internal memo obtained by Radio-Canada, Santé Québec suspended SIFA following recommendations from the agency and a committee overseeing the management of the project.

That committee is made up of staff from Santé Québec and the Cybersecurity Ministry.

Santé Québec had requested an additional $94 million for SIFA but has not yet gotten authorization. The government allowed the agency to spend an additional $95 million on the DSN.

Biron maintains the projects would save the province more than $1 billion in the long run.

Opposition parties are calling for an official hearing at the National Assembly, looking into the digital transition in the healthcare system. They accuse the Quebec government of lacking transparency.

Just hours before Santé Québec announced its decision to put the projects on hold, two Quebec cabinet ministers insisted the digital transition was going well when faced with questions from the opposition at the legislature.

“We have no alarm bells at this point,” Cybersecurity Minister Gilles Bélanger said during Thursday’s question period.

“We are confident we can complete these projects on budget.”

Health Minister Christian Dubé added the transition is in good hands under Santé Québec, and the only issue they are dealing with, he said, is that doctors are refusing to take part in the pilot project.

“We should not be worrying people when there is no valid reason to do so,” he said.

After Santé Québec announced the suspension of the project, Dubé called it a responsible decision “in a context where the conditions for the two projects’ success aren’t currently [there].”

The government has not yet responded to the calls for a hearing.
The opposition said the situation appears to be a repeat of what happened with SAAQclic.

“We have, at the government, amateur ministers who did not know this morning what was going on – at all,” said Liberal health critic Marc Tanguay.

“Santé Québec is the dark side of the moon. We want to find out what’s going on.”

Vincent Marissal, health critic for Québec Solidaire, also accused the government of waiting until the last minute before backtracking.

“The CAQ always has to hit a wall before it takes action,” he said in a statement. “We’re watching the complete dissolution of the government’s credibility.’’

The Parti Québécois, meanwhile, is calling on the province’s auditor general to do a complete audit of the DSN and SIFA projects.

Quebec’s largest nurses’ union, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), feels the digital transition is a waste of taxpayers’ money at this point.

The union is asking that the funding set aside for the projects be reallocated directly to patients’ care and better working conditions for nurses.

The FSSS-CSN, another union representing healthcare workers, also said the government failed to account for the personnel and hours needed to train staff on the new digital platforms when determining the budget for the pilot projects.

The Canadian Press said the estimated costs for the Digital Health Record are $307 million. To date, $248 million has been spent, according to information made public on the Government of Quebec’s Information Resources Project Dashboard.

The Finance and Procurement Information System is expected to cost $430 million, of which just over $65 million has been spent so far.