Technicians from the blood bank at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal will mobilize Tuesday noon to sound the alarm to the government. They denounce the current staff shortage, which they believe would jeopardize the functioning of the laboratory.
The coagulation laboratory at Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital would only operate at 33% of the workforce this week, according to the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS). That of general hematology would roll at 64%, and the blood bank, at 71%. All sectors combined, there is a lack of at least 25% of the workforce, which requires two people working overtime for each evening shift.
“It’s dangerous,” said Brigitte Chalifoux, national representative of the APTS for the CHUM and associated medical laboratories.
“This is dramatic for the people of east Montreal. The blood bank is vital in a hospital. If the quarters are uncovered, it is dangerous for the population because we cannot donate blood without analyzes. This is also where we deal with plasma, platelets, etc. No labs, no hospitals! »Launches the union representative, who urges the government to put in place incentives to retain existing technicians and attract new ones to the laboratory.
The CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal declined to comment on the situation and referred us to Optilab-CHUM, which manages the laboratory file as a whole. Optilab-CHUM confirmed at Duty that four posts are vacant and that five posts are vacant due to sick leave.
“The Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital laboratory is indeed under pressure. Last November, members of the union and the CHUM looked for solutions to be implemented quickly to relieve the teams, ”explains Andrée-Anne Toussaint, communications advisor at the CHUM. “Atypical schedules have thus been introduced in order to cover part of the evening and night shift and thus stabilize these more complex shifts to fill. This solution was implemented just before Christmas, ”she adds, while confirming that despite the job postings and the full-time upgrading of some, it has still not been possible to fill these shifts. “Laboratory workers are essential to the care provided to patients,” says Mr.me Toussaint.
Departures not replaced
The laboratory technicians at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital are at the end of their rope. They have been running the facility’s blood bank by rotating evening and night overtime for almost a year. And they do not seem to see the end of this back-up solution, as positions are to be filled day and night and two colleagues have left their jobs in recent weeks, without being replaced.
This is the case of Barbara Gaudreault, a blood bank technician for 20 years who chose to resign at the end of his rope on December 22.
“I was starting to get exhausted. It must have been temporary, but it had been two years. There was only one in four people on duty at night. It came back too often ”, explains Mme Gaudreault, who is now part of the troop of vaccinators.
Also an osteopath, she says she has reconciled her two passions since 2014 and having accepted, like many other laboratory employees, to be on a list of people ready to work overtime to remedy the lack of night staff. . “My employer did not allow me to refuse to work certain nights when I was working in osteoarthritis during the day. So I left. “