FMSQ requests postponement of date to end use of agency staff

The Fédération des médecins spécialisé du Québec (FMSQ) is asking the Legault government to postpone the obligation for health establishments in various regions to end the use of independent labour as of October 20. The Collège des médecins du Québec wants Quebec to show “flexibility”.

Quebec is demanding that health establishments in Montreal, Laval, Montérégie, Chaudière-Appalaches and the Capitale-Nationale stop using personnel placement agencies by October 20. The FMSQ considers this target “much too ambitious.”

Patients on the Côte-Nord are already paying the price for bed closures caused by the reduction in the independent workforce, recalls Dr.^r Legault. A man who had cancer surgery at the Baie-Comeau hospital had to spend 10 hours on a medical plane before undergoing an examination at a hospital in the Capitale-Nationale. He was then stuck in Quebec City for three days due to lack of space in Baie-Comeau.

In Montérégie, the Suroît hospital in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield announced that it would close 36 beds in August in order to meet Quebec’s deadline of October 20. The head of the emergency department denounced this decision which, according to him, could put patients in danger.

According to the D^r Legault, hospitals are ready to help each other when a service disruption occurs in a hospital center. “But if it’s the same directive on the island of Montreal, Laval and in Montérégie, when service disruptions occur, where are we going to send the patients? I think it’s going to be really difficult.”

According to data obtained by The Pressseveral health establishments are far from weaning off agencies as required by Quebec. At the CISSS de la Montérégie-Est, agency nurses worked more hours this summer than last summer. “It won’t work if they insist on keeping the October 20 date,” says Dr.^r Legault,.

The Collège des médecins du Québec is also concerned about the consequences for patients and caregivers. “We want the necessary flexibility from the MSSS to achieve the desired objective while minimizing the impacts on users and caregivers, as well as avoiding service disruptions,” they wrote in a statement.

Bed closures have an impact on the recovery of surgeries, recalls Dr.^r Legault: Patients who undergo elective surgery must be hospitalized after the procedure. “The specialists want to operate, but you need nurses and a team,” he said. “We’re like being strangled in the provision of care.”

The FMSQ emphasizes that it is in favor of weaning off agencies. “But can we have a schedule that is more respectful of the teams?” asks D.^r Legault. Can we have some air?