2023-08-24 04:00:00
Private agency nurses from afar sleep inside the hospital de Salaberry-de-Valleyfield between two 4 p.m. shifts because the establishment is unable to recruit in its region.
The measure targets nurses and nursing assistants who live more than 50 kilometers (km) from the hospital and who must work two double shifts, or 16 consecutive hours.
During their eight-hour “break” between the two shifts, these employees can sleep for free in rooms on the fourth floor of the Suroît hospital. They then return to work at 4 p.m.
Agency nurses, many of whom live in the Outaouais, sleep in a room set up for them on the fourth floor of the Suroît hospital when they work two consecutive 16-hour shifts. MARTIN ALARIE / THE MONTREAL JOURNAL
Unable to recruit here
About fifty employees have benefited from these rooms for a year, confirms the management of the Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) of Montérégie-Ouest.
“It’s quite intense as a way of life. […] We do not agree with the principle”, reacts Maxime Laforce-Steben, the interim president of the local union of nurses (FIQ). Doing several 16 hours in a row is not safe.
“It worries us to see that, we don’t want there to be errors on the patients,” he adds.
Accommodation is offered to both agency and public network employees who meet the criteria. However, it is mainly employees in the private sector who use it. Many live in the Outaouais or in other regions, confirms the CISSS. The measure was put in place because even private agencies in the Montérégie might not provide manpower.
“We would have liked to welcome more nurses from Montérégie-Ouest and its surroundings, but there were simply none,” wrote the CISSS communications department by email. We have therefore taken steps to obtain the required workforce in order to be able to continue to provide care while maintaining our hospital capacity.
According to the nurses’ union, it is possible that public employees slept on the spot, but that “it is rather rare”. Moreover, Mr. Laforce-Steben points out that agency nurses often demand to work 16-hour shifts, otherwise they refuse to work.
The CISSS specifies that these rooms do not affect the reception capacity for patients. The CISSS also pays $0.54 per kilometer to people who live more than 50 km from the hospital.
More cases to come?
According to the Association of Private Companies of Caregivers of Quebec, these examples might multiply. From now on, nurses who leave the public sector for the private sector cannot work in the same region, or those bordering them, for at least one year. Result: they have to go elsewhere.
“This phenomenon will go on increasing, believes the president and CEO Patrice Lapointe. When we prevent people from lending a hand, that does not solve the problem.
Patrice Lapointe, CEO of the Association of Private Healthcare Personnel Companies of Quebec. Courtesy (EPPSQ)
Remember that the government wants to abolish the use of private agencies by 2026 in Quebec.
During the pandemic, the Jewish General Hospital paid for around 20 hotel rooms to employees who came from outside the region. This measure is no longer in place.
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