The CISSS de la Côte-Nord indicated on Wednesday that it had confirmation that it will have “new resources” to address the severe labor shortage it is facing. This announcement thus makes it possible to avoid the closure of hospital beds and the transfer of patients to hospitals in other regions which he had announced on Monday.
The Le Royer Hospital, in Baie-Comeau, as well as the Sept-Îles Hospital will therefore no longer have to close 20 hospital beds each. “This improvement in the situation is due to the confirmation of new resources in recent hours as well as the mobilization of employees and managers who will work additional shifts,” explained Marlène Joseph-Blais, director of communications. , legal and corporate affairs of the CISSS.
Thanks to these reinforcements, the emergency room at the Multiservice Health and Social Services Center in Forestville, on the Haute-Côte-Nord, will be able to remain open at night.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, was delighted to see that the solutions introduced to compensate for the lack of manpower “are starting to bear fruit”. “They made it possible to fill positions and avoid the transfer of patients to other regions,” he stressed, on the social network X.
However, “everything is not settled,” acknowledged Mr. Dubé, adding to continue working to put in place “long-lasting” measures to ensure the maintenance of services in the short, medium and long term.
On Monday, the CEO of the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, Manon Asselin, announced that service reductions of a “scale” never seen before were coming.
According to her, this situation resulted from the drop in the number of employees of personnel placement agencies who decide to come and work in the region, since the entry into force of new rules from Quebec. These aim to reduce the use of independent labor, which however poses a problem for the North Shore, which is heavily dependent on it.
Tuesday morning, however, the minister maintained that he did not want to back down on his desire to bring personnel placement agencies into line, in particular by establishing a cap on the hourly rate of labor.
“The network is at the mercy of companies who have spent years threatening us with service disruptions and increasing their prices. We must put an end to it as we committed to,” he insisted.
With Marie-Eve Cousineau