Dessercom, an ambulance company located in Lévis, admits that requests for help from its employees are reaching unprecedented heights and is worried about the morale of its troops, in response to a heartfelt cry from one of their paramedics.
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On Monday, the Journal published an interview with Olivier Lafrenière, a paramedic from Lévis who denounced on social networks the distress and lack of recognition experienced by his colleagues.
“We support him in this process. It’s actually not easy,” says Marc Bouchard, director of operations at Dessercom.
The director does not hide it. Like Olivier, he is worried about the morale of his troops, particularly at this “end” of the pandemic, where requests for help are reaching unprecedented heights.
“We have never had so many requests for help from our employees,” he says. We really felt that there was a movement of distress. It got worse and it continues.”
Mr. Bouchard points out that distress is often multifactorial and helping his employees get back on their feet can be a big challenge.
“The distress, we feel it well, but what is the remedy? That’s the issue,” laments Mr. Bouchard.
A feverishness in Lévis
He believes that the situation is accentuated in Lévis compared to the ten barracks located throughout Chaudière-Appalaches and in the Capitale-Nationale.
For some time now, a certain excitement has been felt in the corridors.
“In several people, not just Olivier, I felt that there was something that was palpable, people who did not feel well, specifies Mr. Bouchard. For what? That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Although the approach was not a union one, the director of operations recalls that they are in the process of renewing the collective agreement and therefore considers it difficult, in the context, to give his impressions of the government’s current involvement in the conditions of work.
However, he argues that the government apparatus still has a long way to go in terms of recognizing paramedics.
“The Minister [de la Santé, Christian] Dubé spoke about it in his health plan, that paramedics are at the heart of the health system, but currently, that is not what we feel. This is not what we feel from the government,” concludes Mr. Bouchard.