Working conditions | Nurses sit-in along the entire Hudson Bay coast

Nurses from the 7 villages on the Hudson Bay coast were on Thursday evening sit in to protest against their working conditions and the severe shortage of personnel affecting their region.

“We refuse to be on call tonight […] And we are ready to resign en bloc if nothing moves, ”said to The Press the union representative of the Quebec Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) in Inukjuak, Maxime Godin.

Since the end of their day shift at 5:00 p.m., nurses in the seven Hudson’s Bay communities have not answered their community’s on-call telephone. The shortage of nursing staff has been glaring in the north for months, explains the president of the Northern Union of Hudson’s Bay Nurses and Care Professionals, Cyril Gabreau.

Faced with this significant shortage of personnel, the local health authorities had requested the intervention of the army last summer.

Following this outing, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, went to Puvirnituq on August 12. “We were given promises. But since then, nothing has changed. What is happening tonight is the manifestation of an overflow,” says Mr. Gabreau.

In Puvirnituq, for example, only three nurses are currently present, whereas there are normally six.

Hudson’s Bay nurses made six demands to the leaders of the Innulitsivik Health and Social Services Centre. Including the revision of working hours. Especially 24 hour guards. “Because currently, it is not uncommon for a nurse to work 32 hours in a row. It’s too much,” says Gabreau. Hudson’s Bay nurses would like to be guaranteed 8 hours of rest per 24-hour period.

Pending resolution to the crisis, some agency nurses are responding to emergencies tonight in all seven Hudson communities. Between 10 and 15 nurses have mentioned that they are ready to resign en bloc if nothing changes, explains Mr. Godin.

The Innulitsivik Health and Social Services Center did not respond to questions from The Press at the time of publishing.