The government’s flying team, which is supposed to help hospitals in regions in difficulty, is slow to be deployed. Only one nurse is lending a hand on the Côte-Nord. Quebec promises to send a dozen orderlies to Abitibi-Témiscamingue “starting next week.”
Announced by Quebec in mid-May, the national flying team was to take off on June 20. A first nurse was finally sent to the Côte-Nord five days later.
Since then, no other members of the flying team have been deployed there. Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Outaouais have still not received reinforcements.
According to the office of Health Minister Christian Dubé, the Côte-Nord will welcome its “first orderlies next week.” Nurses will arrive in the region by “the end of July.”
The same scenario, or almost, for Abitibi-Témiscamingue. About ten orderlies are expected “starting next week,” according to the firm. The “first nurses” of the flying team will start work in the region “by the end of July.”
Why is the deployment taking so long? Christian Dubé’s office responds that the minister is “precisely” on the North Shore “to better identify and eliminate the blockers.” Frédéric Abergel, executive vice-president of Santé Québec, is accompanying him.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Health Minister Christian Dubé
Quebec claims that even before the arrival of the flying team, around thirty people from other regions went to Abitibi-Témiscamingue to help the existing staff.
“This is a start, but we are continuing our efforts to accelerate the delivery of resources to support teams and services to the population,” they added in a written statement.
Too little, too late
Jean-Sébastien Blais, president of the Syndicat interprofessionnel en soins de santé de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue-FIQ, believes that the arrival of a few nurses from the flying team by the end of July will have “no impact on the care provided to the population” in his region. According to him, two nurses are among the thirty employees from other regions dispatched to Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
This is more resources than we would have needed for the summer period. We would have liked to have less overtime, less mandatory overtime during the summer. This was not the case.
Jean-Sébastien Blais, President of the Interprofessional Union in Health Care of Abitibi-Témiscamingue-FIQ
Let us recall that the FIQ is not participating in the flying team project, since it is still in negotiations with the government for the renewal of its collective agreement. The Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ) and the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN) contributed to its creation.
The FTQ is surprised by the delay in implementation. “We wonder why it’s taking so long,” says Karine Cabana, coordinator of the social affairs sector of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, affiliated with the FTQ. “We have interim agreements that allow this deployment.”
According to her, at least four employees of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, who obtained a position within the flying team, were available this week to work in the region. “Their employer [CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal] was able to free them,” she said.