Six Months Closure of Department of Obstetrics in Shawville, Quebec
No! to the Closing of Fundamental Health Services
- Louis Lang -
About 20 people drove close to two hours from Shawville
and other Pontiac towns to demonstrate Monday morning, February 24, in
front of the Hull hospital in Gatineau, Quebec to express their anger
at the fact that the Outaouais Integrated Health and Social Services
Centre (CISSSO) has announced that as of February 21, the department of
obstetrics at the Shawville hospital will be closed for six months. The
department was a service that was essential to women from various
Pontiac towns such as Fort-Coulonge and Mansfield-et-Pontefract. With
this closure, women awaiting the birth of their child will no longer
have a hospital nearby they can go to in case of an emergency and will,
in some cases, have to drive two hours to have their baby.
 The
CISSSO announced that it was closing the department for safety reasons,
which the Minister responsible for the Outaouais, Mathieu Lacombe,
endorsed. The issue of safety is raised because, among other factors,
there are only three nurses on hand in the department, when the number
of nurses required to provide complete and safe services in obstetrics
is 12. Quebec nurses' medieval working conditions are a key factor in
the closing of the department which means it is closely related to the
concerns raised by workers in the health sector who have been stating
for years that to improve the services in health care there must be an
improvement in the working conditions of those who provide the services.
Women in the Pontiac have expressed that they are
worried that not only the department of obstetrics may never reopen,
but that other services could also be affected. The people
demonstrating received broad support from people going in and out of
the hospital. Demonstrators stated that they would continue to hold
actions until the problem is resolved and the service restored. Their
preoccupations and demands deserve the support of everyone. On Sunday,
March 1 a demonstration will be held at 2 pm in front of the Shawville
Hospital.
Ongoing information on the struggle can be obtained at La Voix Du Pontiac on Facebook, and with hashtag #obspontiac.
This article was published in
Number 8 - February 27, 2020
Article Link:
Six Months Closure of Department of Obstetrics in Shawville, Quebec: No! to the Closing of Fundamental Health Services - Louis Lang
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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