Epidemiological crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the precarious nature of public health investments. In Quebec, health promotion, disease prevention and ongoing surveillance of the health status of the population have been relegated to the back burner during the pandemic. While necessary, efforts to monitor emergencies and health risks and protect health have been at the expense of other public health actions. This could have had deleterious effects on population health.
Organized in collaboration with the École de santé publique de l'Université de Montréal (ESPUM) and the Centre de recherche en santé publique (CReSP), this panel will discuss decisions and trade-offs in the allocation of expenditures between major public health functions so as to better understand the consequences of the choices that are made.
Mehdi Ammi (Carleton University), Associate Researcher CIRANO and Erin Strumpf (McGill University), Researcher and Fellow CIRANO, will present the analyses and conclusions of their recent CIRANO report. According to them, the pandemic has potentially compromised public health efforts that generate long-term benefits. The curative logic underlying the preservation of the health care system appears to have dominated the public health logic and the consequences can be significant. For example, there is an increase in chronic diseases that would not have been detected early, adding pressure on the curative system and its costs. Another consequence could be a negative impact on cancer screening and non-COVID-19 vaccination efforts, such as measles, for example.
Three experts will comment on these issues: Dr. Luc Boileau, National Director of Public Health and Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Olivier Jacques (Université de Montréal, CReSP), CIRANO Researcher, and Thomas Bastien, Director General of the Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ).
The panel will be moderated by Roxane Borgès Da Silva (Université de Montréal, CReSP, CIRANO) and Carl-Ardy Dubois (Université de Montréal, CReSP, CIRANO).
The panel will be followed by a cocktail reception.
This conference is part of the activities taking place in the context of the annual theme at CIRANO in 2024-2025 under the theme Efficiency at the heart of the Quebec health care system.
