Crisis in Quebec Health Care
System
Unresolved Issues in
Health Care and Social Services
Three Outaouais health care unions have formed a
common
front to put forward their demands to improve the working
conditions of
their workers and the
health care and social services available to the
population.[1] The three unions' first
joint action
was to demand a meeting with a Quebec government representative
designated to investigate problems within the health care system
in the
Outaouais and report to the Quebec Minister of Health.
The three unions are concerned the designated
government trustee did not seek to meet with them, as they are
very
knowledgeable as to the problems facing health care services in
the
region. They handed in a petition signed by union employees.
Among
their preoccupations is the exhaustion felt by many due to
compulsory
overtime, staff shortages and the heavy workloads. They also
raise the
need for local services for populations living in the region.
Line Plante, President of Quebec
Interprofessional
Health Federation (FIQ) asks why no pivot nurses, who work
closely with
cancer patients and their families, work in the region. How could
that
be normal she demands? Also, why do women living in the
Vallée-de-la-Gatineau have no child birth care and mothers
must
go to Gatineau or to Mont-Laurier to give birth? The unions
jointly
demand that these services be a priority and that the required
services
be put in place to meet the needs of the population throughout
the
region.
In related news, nurses of the
Maisonneuve-Rosemont
Hospital in Montreal held a sit-in on January 27 to express
their
discontent in the face of compulsory overtime and to demand the
hiring
of new nurses to deal with staff shortages. Workers recall that
since
the Quebec elections last year, the new Minister of Health,
Danielle
McCann,
has expressed time and again that she would leave no stone
unturned to
solve this problem. Now her approach appears to have somewhat
changed.
She recently stated that the issue of compulsory overtime should
be
resolved by means of the pilot projects put in place by former
Health
Minister Gaétan Barrette towards the end of last year and
whose
declared
objective was to examine the nurse/patient ratio so as to
eventually
reduce the number of patients somewhat. How this concretely
addresses
the matter of solving the pressing problem of compulsory overtime
is
not at all clear as nurse/patient ratios are more directly
connected
with the level of care. These pilot projects do not address the
urgency
of
the situation of compulsory overtime, which requires immediate
resolution.
Note
1. The three unions are the Alliance of
Health and
Social Service Professional and Technical Staff, Confederation of
national unions and the Quebec Interprofessional Health
Federation.
This article was published in
Number 4 - February 7, 2019
Article Link:
Crisis in Quebec Health Care
System : Unresolved Issues in
Health Care and Social Services
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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