Karine d'Auteuil, Interim President, Union of Health Care Professionals for the Outaouais 
Gatineau health care workers protest untenable working conditions, July 15, 2021.We
are currently experiencing a crisis unlike any before. The Gatineau
hospital emergency room had to be closed mainly because of a lack of
expertise, a lack of nurses with experience in the emergency room (ER),
who have expertise in triage and trauma. A novice nurse who arrives in
the ER cannot go to the trauma room nor do triage. At the Gatineau
Hospital this is what caused the problem and we had a service
breakdown. We don't have enough expertise to provide safe care to the
population. This is why the ER was closed. By closing the second
largest ER in the Outaouais, we were overloading the other ERs. It has
been partially reopened from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, to prevent the other
ERs in the region from being overwhelmed.
We talk a lot about the ERs, because they are often in the
media, but in the Outaouais we are also experiencing a dangerous
shortage of staff in care units. For example, at the Gatineau Hospital we have
less than 45 per cent of positions filled on the care units. At the
Papineau Hospital as well, a care unit was closed because there was too
great a
shortage of personnel. In other care units as well, we can no longer
provide 100 per cent service with the current staffing levels.
It is certain that the underfunding of the Outaouais, which we have
been experiencing for years, has hurt us a lot. In addition, we are
right next to Ontario, so it's easy for a care professional to cross
the bridge to get better wages and working conditions than ours.
The Minister of Health Christian Dubé wants to continue to
ignore the border premium, so we will just continue to be pushed to the
wall. The purpose of a border premium would be to be competitive with
Ontario. A nurse who decides to come and work in the Outaouais should
receive a border premium. In the region, evening and night
premiums are already increased so that we can keep our nurses, but this
is no longer enough. We are calling on Minister
Dubé to introduce a border premium. Not long ago, the Montfort
Hospital in Ottawa offered a $10,000 bonus for working one year full
time in Montfort. How can we at the Integrated Health and Social
Services Centres in the Outaouais (CISSSO) compete with that?
We have been saying this for a long time and that is why we have a
special status budget envelope due to the fact that we are next to
Ontario. That envelope needs to be reviewed and it also needs to be
used wisely.
 There
was a study in 2015 that clearly demonstrated the underfunding
that we are experiencing in the Outaouais compared to our health needs.
With our population, we should have a health budget that is higher than
what it is now.The Minister of Families Mathieu Lacombe said that his
priority is the health care system but he has done nothing to solve the
problem of the personnel shortage. The health care system is worse than
it was at the beginning of his mandate. The shortage has worsened.
We are not facing the usual shortage that we have been experiencing
for years. We are facing a dangerous shortage where care is at risk. We
do not have the necessary funding to create attractive positions and
working conditions and to ensure the retention of care personnel in the
Outaouais. The pandemic has greatly weakened retention. We
cannot rebuild a health system without making investments. The Minister
of Health is just shifting the problem by closing beds here and there,
but that doesn't solve the problem.
We continue to hammer home the point that we are underfunded and
that the government needs to take action. Increased funding for health
care in the Outaouais is at the heart of the problem of getting back on
track and ensuring adequate health care for the population
A few weeks ago, at a press conference, Minister Dubé
presented three solutions to the problems of emergency rooms. He
mentioned the reorientation towards Family Medicine Groups (FMGs). As
far as referrals are concerned, there has been an enormous improvement
in the region. We have gone from five to 10 per cent of referrals in
emergency rooms to FMGs, to about 20 to 30 per cent of patients. A very
good team has already been put in place to bridge the gap between the FMGs and
family physician clinics. This is not
going to help us reduce the staff shortage. Even though the occupancy
rate is decreasing, the basic positions that are needed are
not being filled. On the 7th North Care Unit at the Gatineau Hospital,
I have nine nursing positions out of 29 that are filled. Taking away patients will not help to fill these
positions. The other two avenues put forward by the Minister are that
family doctors keep their offices open for longer hours, which is already being done, and
that
family doctors take on more patients, especially those with symptoms of
COVID-19. These three solutions will not address the shortage of staff on the
care units and in the ERs. There is no shortage of space for
patients. It is the care professionals who are lacking.
We need stable departments, positions and shifts. We need the tools to do our work, and that means funding.
Also, the employer now takes us to the Administrative Labour
Tribunal when we refuse work when our conditions become totally unsafe.
They say that a work refusal is a violation of our collective
agreement. But beyond the collective agreement, there is the code of
ethics of a health care professional. I don't want to put my patient at
risk,
nor my license. If my clinical judgment tells me that being alone to
care for 27 patients is too much, that it is putting care at risk, it
is my duty to say so and refuse work that poses an imminent
danger. We are governed by our code of ethics above all, and by our
conscience as well.
The government does not understand this. It treats us as pawns. We
are not pawns. We are care professionals and we have a duty to our
patients above all to work safely.
This article was published in
August 11, 2021 - No. 68
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08684.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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