The ban on private employment agencies would have tragic consequences for the health network and in particular for the first line, warns the Association of Private Companies of Caregivers of Quebec (EPPSQ).
“To deprive oneself of the contribution of the nearly 11,000 workers who have chosen to work in an agency announces a tragedy which will strike those who need it most, the patients”, affirms the EPPSQ in the brief which it will present Tuesday in as part of the consultations on Minister Dubé’s bill to “liberate” the health network from private agencies.
Bill 10 stipulates that health and social services organizations will no longer be able to use the services of these agencies or independent labor, except in certain cases provided for in government regulations.
However, such a ban could prove to be unconstitutional, because it could affect the population’s right to life and security by “depriving” the public network of nearly “11,000 qualified resources offering care to Quebecers”, defends the EPPSQ.
Lack of staff
The association also warns the government that banning the use of agencies could accentuate the labor shortage in the health network.
She cites in support a survey that she herself conducted among its members, which attests that a large proportion of the staff who left the public network to work in the private sector will not return to the network if the agencies are abolished. .
Management
What is more, the ills of the health network are not attributable to the agencies, which instead point the finger at the failure of the “organizational culture” which prevails there, as well as the management problems which are one of the “perverse effects of hypercentralization.
According to the EPPSQ, health establishments are sometimes forced, in order to avoid service failures, to circumvent calls for tenders “which do not work in the field”, and to call on suppliers who are not subject to the “same rules of probity”.
Costs
According to data from the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the costs related to the independent health workforce increased by 380% in Quebec between 2016 and 2022, in particular due to the ever-increasing use of the public network of personnel placement agencies.
For its part, the EPPSQ claims that “even at the height of the pandemic”, there was only a difference of 0.5% between the remuneration of the staff of the independent workforce network compared to to that of public network personnel.
And if the remuneration in remote regions is higher, it is because the agencies have to pay for accommodation, travel and allowances for the staff who are deployed, defends the association.
Some solutions offered by placement agencies:
- Develop a list of suppliers accredited by the Government of Quebec
- Create a consultation table to ensure the maintenance and development of the regulatory framework
- Clearly define what a care staff placement agency is
- Do not only apply the principle of the lowest bidder, but reinstate quality standards in public tenders for health care
- Take into account regional realities to allow a price structure adapted to the realities of the Quebec territory.
- Establish a price structure in order to evacuate the risks of overflow and abnormally high prices