After forcing nurses from family medicine groups (GMF) to work at the Mont-Laurier hospital this summer, the CISSS des Laurentides is now calling on the same caregivers to fill shifts in the medicine and surgery unit. . The seven professionals concerned refuse to be moved, reports the union.
Sylvie Yale is one of them. “What we just want to tell people in the population is that we don’t want to go there because we care about their safety,” says the 44-year-old nurse who has not worked in hospital environment for 19 years. “We don’t feel fit, and it’s not with a little training that you become fit to work in medicine-surgery and emergency. »
Sylvie Yale was suspended for eight days by the CISSS des Laurentides because she refused the shifts that her employer imposed on her this summer in the medicine and surgery unit.
The nurse, who works full-time in a GMF-U in Mont-Laurier, lost the retention bonus of $15,000 granted by Quebec. Two of her colleagues — one of whom was the subject of a column by Patrick Lagacé in The Press — suffered the same penalties.
The Union of Care Professionals of the Laurentians (FIQ-SPSL) denounces the fate reserved for these caregivers and asks that these trips, an “unacceptable practice”, cease. He calls on the Minister of Health Christian Dubé to intervene “without delay and directly with the CISSS des Laurentides”. A letter, of which The duty was able to learn, was sent to him on this subject on September 29.
No compulsory travel, says the CISSS
The CISSS des Laurentides ensures that the mandatory trips, in force during the summer, have been completed since September 5. “A call for volunteers was made last week to cover the services of the medical unit,” writes the health establishment in an email. No manager was available for an interview with the To have to.
The union interprets this “call for volunteers” differently. “A manager mentioned to one of our members that they were ready to dismiss them if the trips were refused,” says its president, Julie Daignault.
The CISSS des Laurentides replies that it is relying on a “voluntary approach”. “At this stage, management has no intention of imposing anything,” says the health establishment. We will make the link with the teams if the understanding was not correct. »
During a meeting last week, the employer submitted a proposal to the nurses of GMF and GMF-U of Mont-Laurier: to fill together for one year the equivalent of a full-time position in the medicine to replace a pregnant nurse on preventive leave. Each would have worked a shift every two weeks. “Adequate” training would have been offered to them, according to the CISSS.
All refused. “Where is the logic, at the start, the reasoning, to say “we take these people from the front line and we send them to the units”? asks Sylvie Yale. She points out that as a nurse clinician in FMG-U, she contributes to reducing emergency room visits by taking care, for example, of patients with a urinary tract infection.
The DD Geneviève Levy, doctor in charge of the GMF de la Lièvre in Mont-Laurier, does not understand why we want to strip the first line. “There’s just going to be more people in the ER,” she said. However, it overflows. Over the past few days, the occupancy rate on the stretcher at the Mont-Laurier emergency room has risen to 240%. It has since declined to 100% as of 1 p.m. Thursday.
Major staff shortage
The situation at the Mont-Laurier hospital is “very fragile” due to the glaring lack of nurses, estimates the head of hospitalization, the DD Florence Beaulieu-Dore. Only 28 of the hospital’s 42 beds are open.
“Our nurses are already working a lot,” says the family doctor. They are tired. We have exhausted our pool [de soignantes] in and around Mont-Laurier. There, we have come to solicit nurses from the south [des Laurentides] : from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Saint-Eustache and Saint-Jérôme. »
Some will also come to work at Mont-Laurier hospital in the coming weeks, according to the CISSS.
The health establishment stresses that it is doing “intensive recruitment” and that it is exploring various solutions, such as rotating schedules and 12-hour shifts, to make up for the shortage of nurses. And why not resort to private placement agencies? “Mont-Laurier’s remoteness limits the labor pool available from agencies,” he replies.
The DD Beaulieu-Doré suggests offering a bonus to nurses who work in Mont-Laurier in order to attract caregivers. She also points out that family doctors who practice in the Hautes-Laurentides (MRC of Antoine-Labelle) are entitled to a rate increase because the region is considered remote. Administrative officers, beneficiary attendants and service aides could also be hired to help nurses, she said.
“We don’t want to close any beds, says the DD Beaulieu-Dore. But ultimately, if there’s no one to see patients, it’s not safe to keep them in the hospital without a nurse. »