Since Quebec has tightened the use of private agencies in the health network, establishments are turning to… private agencies, with whom they now conclude over-the-counter contracts.
Like Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the North Shore confirms that it has turned to this type of contract, without a call for tenders, to ensure it has labor.
The Quebec government legislated last year to abolish the use of private agencies in the health network. The change involves in particular a capping, since May 19 in remote regions, of the hourly rate of independent labor.
Since the establishment of this price cap, the office of the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, has criticized the 170 private agencies which responded to the government’s call for tenders for not providing the requested personnel, even though the call for tenders in which they participated specified the new rates in force.
Faced with a significant labor shortage, CISSSs like that of the North Shore are therefore turning to the 180 other private agencies in Quebec: those which had not responded to the call for tenders.
“There are many agreements [de gré à gré] concluded with certain agencies not part of the provincial contract,” Pascal Paradis, communications advisor at the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, wrote on Tuesday. “These agreements are made at the same rates as [ceux prévus dans] the contract for the Government Acquisition Center,” he added, referring to the Quebec government portal. Mr. Paradis did not provide further details on the contracts.
The elephant in the room
In an interview, anesthesiologist Youssef Ezahr noted the indispensable nature of private agencies in regions such as the North Shore, where he chairs the Council of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists. “The elephant [dans la pièce] which we do not want to name, which is the agency, well it is the one which is helping us for the moment,” he said.
The duty revealed Tuesday that a newborn had to be transferred to Quebec without her mother because the nursery at the Baie-Comeau hospital, where she had just given birth, was closed due to lack of manpower. The Dr Ezahr explained that the Sept-Îles hospital also had to close its nursery, but that it managed to keep its pediatric department open. “We managed to keep Sept-Îles functioning thanks to independent labor” from private agencies, the doctor underlined. “These are agencies that helped us, that worked over the counter with the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, and that we managed to recruit. »
The president of the Union of Health Workers of North-Eastern Quebec, Karine Ouellet-Moreau, is not surprised to see the use of agencies continue. “We told them: eliminate the independent workforce, we agree with that, but it is certain that we need security plans for our members,” she began. “It was quick. It is certain that over-the-counter contracts have calmed down a little the chaos we had, but we will have to find solutions for the future all the same, and it is obvious that this involves working conditions” , she continued.
The situation is critical on the North Shore and in Abitibi-Témiscamingue since the entry into force of the new regulations on the use of labor from personnel placement agencies. On May 16, Minister Dubé announced the establishment of a public flying team, in conjunction with the Confederation of National Unions and the Quebec Federation of Workers. “It is a central element of the plan to put an end to the private agencies that we activate,” he then wrote on the X network, saying he wanted to “send reinforcements to remote regions”. In a press scrum on Tuesday, he said he hoped to be “able to post positions this week”, which would make him “very happy”.