Faced with a glaring labor shortage, the CISSS de la Côte-Nord is closing dozens of hospital beds and reducing several services “for an indefinite period” in its hospitals in Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles . Around forty patients will have to be transferred this week to hospitals in other regions. The summer also promises to be difficult in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where there will be fewer nurses in the CHSLD teams.
The president of the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, Manon Asselin, listed the units and facilities affected by a reduction in services in her region during a press conference on Monday afternoon. The list is long.
As of May 19, the emergency room at Le Royer hospital in Baie-Comeau will have a “limited capacity in terms of stretcher occupancy,” she said. “In terms of hospitalization, we are currently closing a 13-bed overflow unit and we plan to close 20 hospitalization beds from Wednesday, May 15. » The nursery and pediatric unit of the mother-child center will also be closed.
The picture is similar at the Sept-Îles hospital. From next Sunday, emergency stretcher capacity will be “limited”. The closure of an overflow unit, which has eight beds, is in progress. To this number are added eight other hospital beds.
In both hospitals, one of the two operating rooms will be closed from May 21. The CISSS assures that urgent surgeries and those in oncology will be maintained, but warns that only half of the planned elective operations can be carried out. In Haute-Côte-Nord, the emergency room at the Forestville multi-service center will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and not 24 hours a day.
These are service reductions of a “scale” never seen before, according to the CEO of the CISSS de la Côte-Nord. According to Manon Asselin, the situation is explained by the fact that fewer employees of personnel placement agencies decide to work in the region since the implementation of new rules by Quebec aimed at reducing the independent workforce , such as capping hourly rates (for a nurse, $74 per hour + 35% in remote areas). By October 18, 2026, remote areas like the North Shore will have to stop using agencies.
“As of today, we are still missing 39 nurses and around a hundred beneficiary attendants and auxiliaries for the required health services,” says Manon Asselin.
Between 600 and 700 agency employees work every day at the CISSS de la Côte-Nord. About 98% of them live outside the region.
Fewer services in Abitibi-Témiscamingue
The CISSS de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue is also reorganizing its services due to lack of staff. In a press briefing held Monday afternoon, the president and general manager, Caroline Roy, notably indicated that a 12-bed active mental health rehabilitation unit would close at the Malartic hospital.
The number of nurses and beneficiary attendants will also be reduced “within the CHSLD teams”. Fewer nurses will work in home support and in external mental health services in certain sectors. “It may very well be that teams are asked to work more overtime,” recognizes Caroline Roy. This is something we anticipate and will certainly happen. »
The CISSS, however, wants to “avoid overload” of work. “In the sense that we won’t ask teams to do the same thing even if they have fewer individuals,” she says. The care offer will be “adjusted”, she specifies. Other job titles will also be “used” in CHSLDs.
Jean-Sébastien Blais, president of the Interprofessional Health Care Union of Abitibi-Témiscamingue-FIQ, considers this “very worrying news”. “We are going against good recommendations. This will reduce the quality of care and push professionals on sick leave,” he judges.
The CISSS de la Côte-Nord and Abitibi-Témiscamingue invite citizens wishing to become service aides to come and lend a hand in their health establishment.