This text is part of the special booklet Defining priorities on the large table of commitments
As fall approaches, the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS) is deeply concerned about the shortage of personnel in the health network, reports its president, Robert Comeau.
During the pandemic, the spotlight has been on the lack of patient attendants. However, there is a lack of arms everywhere. “Among the 65,000 people we represent in more than a hundred types of jobs, the shortage is experienced in all categories,” says Robert Comeau. Nutritionists, occupational therapists, psychologists, laboratory or respiratory therapy technicians and others, these specialists contribute to the diagnosis and recovery of patients in a multitude of ways. They work as a team, with nurses and doctors; when a group has difficulties, it is everyone who feels it.
Real and immediate consequences
Rupture of services, lengthening of waiting lists: the shortage of personnel in the health system has very real effects. The president, who took a walk in the field this summer, sees needs everywhere, and particularly in mental health, medical imaging and laboratories. In the Gaspé, the hospital laboratories lost half of their team, which almost led to the closure of the establishment. In Montérégie, it is impossible to see an audiologist or a speech therapist for children. In the Outaouais, there is a wave of departure of laboratory technicians who are going to work in Ottawa. And in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, we have built new oncology facilities to treat patients in the region, but we cannot hire the staff.
To compensate for the shortage, the remaining staff have to work twice as hard, and have less time to go in depth. This work overload cannot be sustained. For less “urgent” services, waiting lists continue to grow. “A suicidal teenager will be placed on a waiting list, but it’s important to meet him, just as if he had a physical problem”, underlines the president.
Patients have to wait longer, travel even further, or even turn to the private sector, “but not all the people we represent have their counterpart in the private sector”, specifies -he. Youth center evaluation and adaptation workers have no equivalent in the private sector, for example.
Better conditions
“People desert because the working conditions are not there; the salary does not follow either,” says Mr. Comeau. It is high time for the government to give a clear signal of its desire to improve the conditions of these support staff, to give them hope.
Improving conditions would help retain workers who are already in the public system, but also make it attractive to young people. Because if, in the past, the public pension system was an advantage against the private one, young people today are concerned about the organization of work.
“They don’t necessarily want full time, and want a better balance with personal life. And that’s okay, you have to adapt to that,” said Mr. Comeau. However, working with the public is motivating, he explains. Since complex cases are accepted there, the work is less routine, and the workers can develop great expertise.
For a strong public network
At the APTS, we do not sense the government’s desire in this regard. “We rather feel that they want to create a network in parallel, by creating private contracts. We cannot pay for two networks,” notes Mr. Comeau. The union also notices a certain disorganization; for example, the government has not done any planning for a few years for laboratory and medical imaging technologists. “We have no projection of the needs we will have for this staff. That’s worrying, ”believes Mr. Comeau.
However, the union says it is ready to work with the government. “We are ready to sit down with the government to discuss how to tackle the problem,” said Mr. Comeau. As the elections approach in the fall, the union will contact the parties to find out their positions and proposals. The announcement of the Plan to implement the necessary changes in healthcare is a step in the right direction, but healthcare personnel have been burned by the overhauls in recent years.
“We need to reassure the workers. After that, we will become an attractive environment, ”he concludes.