Urban health care facilities will finally have until March 2025 to end their dependence on private agencies, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced Thursday. They were originally supposed to end it as early as October.
This change aims to “ensure a healthy transition for patients,” he said in a press release Thursday afternoon. This “will allow work to continue in order to, in particular, promote the recruitment of staff to strengthen the public network.”
The definitive ban on the use of private agencies was initially scheduled for October 20, 2024. The deadline has now been postponed to the end of March 2025. The affected urban centres correspond to the territories of the Capitale-Nationale, Montreal, Laval, Chaudière-Appalaches and Montérégie.
Certain care settings in these regions will also be entitled to an additional seven-month period, until October 19, 2025. This is the case for private CHSLDs under contract and non-under contract, private residences for seniors — RPAs — and private intermediate resources.
Large cities were to be the first to have to do without independent workers altogether. For mid-sized cities, the deadline was set for 2025, while more remote rural areas were given until 2026 to do so. Those deadlines remain the same, for now.
The minister is facing a lot of pressure on this issue. A few days ago, the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) made a media appearance to urge him to push back the deadline. The medical group feared that Montreal would suffer repercussions from the reform, similar to the staff shortages experienced by the Côte-Nord, Outaouais and Abitibi-Témiscamingue regions this summer.
Let us recall that recourse to health agencies is still permitted in these regions. It is following the entry into force of the cap on hourly rates provided for by the reform that shortages have multiplied.
3,800 out of 11,000 female workers repatriated
In his communications, the Minister of Health reiterates that the abolition of the use of agencies is essential. The use of this type of workforce, he writes, “creates significant inequities for staff in the health and social services system, particularly in terms of remuneration, schedule management and vacation allocation.”
He also points out that since the new law came into force, 3,800 agency workers have returned to the public network. In total, there were 11,000 in 2023.
On Thursday, the main stakeholders wanted to react to the minister’s retreat, and spoke of a “recognition of failure.” “Our teams provide essential flexibility and responsiveness, indispensable to the well-being of patients throughout Quebec,” responded the president of the Association of Private Healthcare Personnel Companies of Quebec.