Health Professionals' Union Affirms "We Are the Solution"
- Pierre Soublière - 
As is the case elsewhere in Quebec, Outaouais Health
professionals are resorting to sit-ins -- which, in most cases, include
refusals to work
-- because of the lack of personnel required to care for patients in
conditions which are safe for the workers providing care to patients as
well as for the patients themselves. The
most recent incident to take place because of a staff shortage was at
the Gatineau Hospital where the intensive care unit was closed from
September 12 to 16. During this closure, two patients had to be
transported to
Montreal, one to Papineauville and another to Maniwaki. The closest
hospital in Quebec with the necessary facilities
was at least a one-hour drive from Gatineau. Similarly at the beginning
of
March, the obstetrics unit at the Shawville hospital was closed and
expectant mothers had to go to Gatineau, an hour-and-a-half drive away.
This disorganization of the health system is not only an
inconvenience but represents a real threat to the safety of both
workers and patients. It is an unthinkable situation in a modern
society, hence
the importance of getting to the heart of the problem and establishing
once and for all what is holding society back and stopping health
workers from playing
their role in terms of meeting the health needs of the population.
When the intensive care unit was shut down at the Gatineau Hospital,
the head of the Integrated Centre for Health and Social
Services for the Outaouais (CISSSO) and the minister responsible for
the Outaouais simply repeated that the unit had shut down because of
parental leave and disability leave. What he did not explain is why
there were no staff available to replace those on leave, as is normal.
On the morning
of the reopening of the intensive care unit, the Quebec Minister of
Health tweeted: "Good news ... In spite of the difficult situations in
certain regions, we continue to find solutions on the ground." To call
this playing coy would be putting it mildly. Recall that when nurses
raised the problem of a lack of personnel,
long before the onset of the pandemic, the government attacked them
precisely for revealing what was really going on "on the ground" and
even claimed that speaking publicly about their working conditions was
part of the problem because it discouraged fresh blood from coming into
the system!
With the pandemic, and in large part due to
ministerial orders, employers have had a field day in limiting summer
holidays and leaves, imposing staff transfers, changing work schedules
at the last minute, imposing different shifts, as well as other
arbitrary measures. Added to that is the fact that mandatory overtime has
become even more rampant
in conditions made all the more unbearable by COVID-19, with nurses
often being required to put in 16-hour days three days in a row. In this way,
the lack of personnel because of already unbearable conditions is made
even worse, resulting in the resignation of close to 800 nurses.
The necessity to oppose attempts by the Quebec government to
put down the health professionals' union and sow doubt as to what the
problems and solutions are has arisen in all earnest. Recently, the
Fédération de l'Âge d'Or du Québec (FADOQ),
the largest organization of seniors in Quebec, has
demanded that the Legault government stop resorting to compulsory
overtime and that the health professional/patient ratio be improved. It
refers to a recent Statistics Canada study which confirms that the
average overtime hours worked by the nursing staff has increased
dramatically in Quebec, going from a weekly average of 6.2 hours in May
2019 to 16.9 hours in May 2020. FADOQ states that "the Quebec
government must
get its head out of the sand. Working until you collapse is a problem
directly related to ratios." It insists that organizational measures
must be imposed by law so that the outcome will be a more human
relationship between health professionals and patients, making it
possible for more quality time to be spent with each patient. Such
stands are required throughout Quebec to make it clear that Quebec
workers and the population at large sides with health professionals and
all frontline and essential workers, and that further attacks on their
working conditions and on their credibility will no longer be tolerated.
This article was published in
Number 63 - September 22, 2020
Article Link:
Health Professionals' Union Affirms "We Are the Solution" - Pierre Soublière
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
