Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to all the witnesses for their testimony on the collateral damage of the pandemic.
Let me turn to Dr. Legault.
Dr. Legault, thank you for your testimony. Like your colleague Dr. Perrault, you gave us precise and surgical testimony. You pointed your scalpel to where it hurts.
You are telling us that 200,000 people are on waiting lists, which is not insignificant. This is the equivalent of the population of the city of Sherbrooke, and we are talking about identified patients only. We don't know which city's population corresponds to the number of patients who have not yet been identified because they have not had access to diagnosis.
Witnesses who appeared before the committee at the beginning of the first wave told us that health care networks were already under pressure and weakened because of chronic underfunding. This morning, you are telling us that it is all very well for the government to have invested to support the economy and the public. However, it should now respond to the needs of our health care systems by providing the provinces and Quebec with substantial recurring funding to help them put their health care networks back on their feet. Congratulations for drawing on best practices. I know that, over the past few decades, you have certainly become an expert in “doing more with less”. In Quebec, we have developed this expertise because we had no choice.
Moreover, you say that there is a serious problem. Regardless of how the care is organized, people are needed to provide it. Right now, the pandemic is having a direct impact on human resources. We could lose expertise that would cost us an awful lot of money to recover.
You were talking about the operating rooms. Even if other people are hired, as was the case with the orderlies, incredible expertise may well be lost. Could you tell us more about that?