Nurses from the Suroît hospital in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield made a sit-in passive, Monday evening, to protest against the lack of nurses in the emergency room. In all, of the 17 nurses and nursing assistants who should normally be on duty for the evening shift, 5 were missing on Monday, explains the president of the Union of healthcare professionals of Montérégie-Ouest, Mélanie Gignac.
“It really doesn’t work with us,” she laments. In protest, the evening nurses did not take possession of the reports of some patients in the emergency room at the start of their shift. These patients could not be assigned to them, forcing the day shift to stay at work, summarizes Mr.me Gignac. She explains that the nurses used this ” sit-in passive ”because they felt the situation would otherwise have been too dangerous for the patients.
The occupancy rate in the emergency rooms of the Suroît hospital reached 222% at 5:30 pm Monday – 72 patients occupied stretchers there while the capacity is 32. About 40 patients were waiting for a bed on the floors to be hospitalized.
In the waiting room of the Suroît hospital, a message recorded by the emergency medical director, Dr Bernard Richard, suggested to the patients that the emergency rooms were saturated. “Our emergency has reached its full capacity. Unfortunately, we no longer have a stretcher adequately covered by a clinical team to take care of you. If your condition allows it, you should go for a consultation at another establishment. Thank you, ”one could hear in this message.
Ridiculous
The staff shortage problem that affects all of Quebec is hitting the Suroît hospital head on. The situation has been going on for months. Mme Gignac deplores that “compulsory overtime” is still commonplace in the west of Montérégie. “It’s part of the schedule. It’s ridiculous, ”she said.
Mme Gignac says the bonuses announced by the government to encourage nurses to work full time or to bring retirees back to work “are not working”. “On the contrary, we have people leaving. I have nurses who have become pruners, hairdressers… Nursing assistants now work at Costco because they know what time they are going to come out of there, ”says Mme Gignac. For her, much more than money, nursing assistants want “meaningful working conditions”.
Mme Gignac says the union, along with management, is working hard to concoct adequate hours. “But the nursing shortage is serious,” she said. The system is breaking down. The CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest did not comment on the situation Monday evening.