“Centralization and dehumanization”: two key resignations at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS

Two major resignations have taken place at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie in the past few days, announced by Dr. Benoît Heppel, head of the Department of General Medicine, and Dr. Marie-Maud Coutre, head of the Department of Emergency Medicine. their departure.

Dr. Heppel’s departure was effective last Saturday. His term was to end in December 2023.

In a letter sent to his colleagues by TVA Nouvelles, a copy of which was obtained, the doctor denounces the “administrative heaviness” that leads to the “unnamed stagnation” of the organization.

“I see the controlling leadership rather than the mobilizing leadership needed to accomplish our mission. Despite the good words, the gestures no longer follow, and I have run out of faith in the organization,” he writes.

“I am deeply confident and would like to continue to assume a leadership role within the organization of CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS, but this is conditional on major changes to be made in the management of our organization.”

The positivity she takes from her time at the Integrated University Health and Social Services Center, she says, is about the human encounters she has had.

For his part, Dr. Marie-Maud Coutre says she can no longer identify with the existing corporate culture and no longer approve of the establishment’s decisions.

He is stepping down as chief of emergency medicine just months before his four-year term ends.

In his resignation letter sent to the management of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS on Monday morning, he explains: “Decisions taken by a centralized establishment without consultation with the medical profession, without local, management go against the needs of patients and the reality on the ground. All these elements lead to a loss of meaning in the care provided to people and Dehumanizing the working conditions of field teams, managers and doctors.

Watch his interview in the video above.