Quebec’s Health Minister Gaétan Barrette says hiring an expensive public relations firm is no way for the MUHC to fix its image woes.
Barrette spoke to CBC News Friday morning about an order he gave the MUHC earlier this week to cancel the remainder of its $600,000 contract with the Montreal PR firm Jonathan Goldbloom and Associates, or JGA.
Barrette gave the hospital until the end of the summer to end the contract, and extended the order to all hospitals in Quebec.
“We asked [the MUHC] to rescind the contract because this is something we don’t expect to happen in any hospital,” Barrette told CBC News.
Quebec’s hospitals have their own in-house communications and PR staff who are paid to provide these services.
“We don’t see why a hospital, which already has the manpower to do that, why they have to go outside and spend that kind of money,” he said.
Barrette said $600,000 for the MUHC’s two-year contract with JGA was “extremely high for a contract of this nature.”
According to JGA’s website, the agency “has planned and managed strategic communications and brand development programs” for MUHC.
Services the agency provides include brand protection and crisis management.
The contract specified that Goldbloom was to serve as a consultant to the MUHC's executive office.
Goldbloom once worked for the MUHC as its interim director of communications.
Barrette said the best way for the MUHC to remake its image is by continuing to deliver quality health care and better managing its resources.
“A hospital’s image is first of all based on quality of care that is provided to their patients. And at McGill the quality of care has never been in question, anytime, at all,” he said.
“It has to be through quality of care and proper management instead of spending money to build or rebuild their image,” Barrette said.
A spokesperson for the MUHC said no one was available for an interview on the issue on Friday.
In a statement, the MUHC said it will "fully respect the ministerial directive within the timeframeprovided,"