Reinforcements coming soon for the operating rooms at Gatineau Hospital

The Gatineau Hospital will soon have help to reopen its operating rooms, which are currently understaffed. A team of nurses from the Montreal Heart Institute will be coming to lend a hand in Outaouais.

The announcement was made Thursday in Quebec by the provincial Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, during a parliamentary session.

There is a team currently being built to send nurses from the Heart Institute to help reopen operating rooms, he said in response to a question from the Liberal MP for Pontiac, André Fortin.

A catastrophic situation

The latter spoke about the catastrophic health situation in Outaouais in front of the deputies and members of the government.

The Gatineau Hospital, the largest hospital in Outaouais, the largest hospital in the 4th largest city in Quebec, this summer, there was one operating room in service out of seven […] If we were lucky, sometimes there were two, he said indignantly.

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André Fortin, Liberal MP for Pontiac (Archive photo)

Photo : Radio-Canada / Sylvain Roy Roussel

For Mr. Fortin, the citizens of Outaouais have been greatly affected by this situation. These are surgeries that are not being performed, patients who are waiting, people who cannot go to work, people who are struggling to take care of their children, people who cannot fully enjoy their retirement, he regrets.

And added that residents of his region should have access to the same level of service as other citizens of Quebec who pay their taxes.

The health situation in Outaouais is deteriorating year after year. It’s not me who says it, it’s the doctors.

A quote from André Fortin, Liberal MP for Pontiac

In response to the Liberal MP, Christian Dubé said he had seen for himself the extent of the situation in Outaouais.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit several hospitals in the Outaouais, among others, some with the member for Pontiac. We saw that in some regions, the summer had still gone well despite the holidays. I am thinking, for example, of the Shawville Hospital. However, where he is right, the situation in Gatineau is worrying, he acknowledges.

Mr. Dubé believes that the current negotiations with the Interprofessional Health Federation of Quebec (FIQ) will make a big difference on the ground.

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Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé visited Outaouais on August 26 and 27. (Archive photo)

Photo : Radio-Canada

Lack of flying teams

Still on the subject of concerns regarding the health situation in the Outaouais, André Fortin also returned to the absence of the flying teams promised by Quebec this summer.

What the minister is telling us is exactly what he told us at the beginning of the summer. He told us that he would send flying teams, that it was a priority region. And during the summer, there were no workers or flying teams who came to the Outaouais, he stressed.

The MP explains that this has contributed to making the situation worse in the Outaouais. During this time, there are more patients waiting for a consultation than last year, more patients who are past the time limit for a consultation. There are more patients waiting for surgery. There are more patients who are past the time limit waiting for surgery, he said.

For his part, the Minister of Health said that union negotiations and vacations did not make it easy to send out flying teams and that service loans were made to three regions, including the Outaouais.

Until the collective agreements were settled, there were several employees who did not want to join the flying teams because the details of the agreements were not known. In the meantime, we made service loans, that is to say, someone says, “I want to make sure that I keep my seniority, I will be able to go and help you, but without changing the reference establishment,” he argued.

Christian Dubé maintains that his government has invested a lot of effort in recruiting health workers to deal with the crisis in the regions.

I think that Quebecers recognize all the efforts made by our health network. We were able to attract 17,000 more people, which is not insignificant in a network that needs nurses and orderlies. We will continue to do the work for all regions of Quebec, he insisted.