(Quebec) The opening of the first seniors’ homes will cause a significant movement of health care workers, particularly CHSLDs, to these new facilities, The Press. In order to avoid undressing Pierre to dress Paul in the midst of a staff shortage, the establishments are forced to plan a gradual start that will be spread over several months.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“What we are aiming for is to open one floor at a time,” explains the project manager for seniors’ and alternative homes at the CISSS des Laurentides, Michel Gauthier. The region is seeing five seniors’ homes spring up on its territory, four of which are to welcome their first residents in the fall.
“Given the delivery times for certain buildings and the availability of labour, the full opening of seniors’ homes and alternative […] will be spread out at least until the fall of 2023,” confirms the CISSS des Laurentides. This is one year after their promised delivery for fall 2022.
Four other CISSSs and CIUSSSs confirm that they must plan openings in stages to ensure that they have enough manpower. For example, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest will open the Châteauguay seniors’ home according to a “deployment in four phases which could be spread over a period of five to six months”.
For this residence alone, the workforce plan has more than 200 positions. “The opening in phases precisely makes it possible to ensure a harmonious deployment according to the situation of the workforce”, writes the establishment by email.
Tight deadline
From the moment the building is delivered by the Société québécoise des infrastructures, the health establishment has a period of eight weeks to begin the reception process, argues the CISSS des Laurentides. It is necessary to arrange the premises and train the staff. It’s a tight deadline, agrees Mr. Gauthier, but realistic if everything goes in order.
The need for manpower for the five residences in the Laurentians is estimated at 771 employees for the clinical sector (attendants, nursing assistants and nurses), to which must be added 89 other positions in the support sectors (food services, operation of facilities, hygiene and laundry).
For the clinical sector, the CISSS des Laurentides estimates that just over 50% of positions have found takers internally. A trend observed in other health establishments which accepted to answer the questions of The Press. The positions are “very attractive” to network employees.
The staff is attracted to the idea of working in an environment at the cutting edge of technology and where care will be offered in a personalized way to seniors.
“A job filled [dans ce contexte], it also means a position that will become vacant at another site,” illustrates Mr. Gauthier. This translates into complex organizational gymnastics in the midst of a labor shortage.
We must ensure that we move the employee without compromising safety in the other CHSLD.
Michel Gauthier, project manager for seniors’ and alternative homes at the CISSS des Laurentides
At the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale, two-thirds of posted positions have been filled internally to date. The CISSS de Laval, which has just inaugurated the CHSLD Val-des-Brises, a first establishment renovated according to the model of seniors’ homes, has also noticed that a “good part” of the positions have been filled by employees of the network. .
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The CHSLD Val-des-Brises, in Laval
The establishment is preparing to open a first seniors’ home in the fall and wants to avoid weakening its other sites. “We want to open in a safe way so that other environments do not run out of services,” explains the assistant director of accommodation at the CISSS de Laval, Marie-France Dubois.
The fear of a “domino effect”
The Interprofessional Health Federation of Quebec and the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN) are also concerned about the movement of personnel. The network is already seriously weakened by the labor shortage.
“The employer, what is he going to do? Is it independent labor that will [pourvoir les postes laissés vacants] ? asks the president of the union of care professionals in the Laurentians, Julie Daignault. She says she fears a “domino effect” which will accentuate the shortage.
“We expect a drainage of personnel,” says the president of the FSSS-CSN, Réjean Leclerc, who notably represents the orderlies. The two unions also deplore the fact that they still have very little information on the conditions associated with these new positions in the seniors’ home.
If the government recognizes that it is the employer and that the transfer is done as the agreements provide for, that is one thing, but if the employer [le traite] like a new hire, that’s something else. At this stage, we have the indication that both avenues are possible.
Réjean Leclerc, President of the FSSS-CSN
A picture still blurred
A few months before the opening of the first seniors’ homes, Quebec maintains the vagueness on labor needs. The minister responsible for seniors and close caregivers, Marguerite Blais, said recently that it would take between “3,800 and 4,000” employees to operate these new establishments. His cabinet confirmed on Friday that, for 2022-2023, labor needs were estimated at 4,000 employees in FTE (full-time equivalent) for the 33 seniors’ homes to be delivered in the fall.
For its part, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) seems to underestimate the needs. While the Laurentides region alone says it needs nearly 800 workers in the clinical sector for its five facilities, he maintains that the 46 seniors’ homes would require the full-time hiring of 336 nurses, 576 nursing assistants and 1,483 orderlies. beneficiaries, according to a document tabled during the study of budgetary appropriations this spring.
The MSSS notes that “as the work surrounding the needs assessment is still in progress, the data presented is provisional and could change later”. Astonishing precision when we will start cutting ribbons in barely three months.
According to Marguerite Blais, “all CISSSs and CIUSSSs have filed” their staffing plans for seniors’ homes. The MSSS refuses to make them public on the pretext that they are still the subject of analyzes and discussions. “There are still elements to revise in the short term”, pleads the cabinet of Mme Blais.