The fate of the nursing staff gave rise, Thursday, to muscular exchanges in the National Assembly. It must be said that more than 5,000 nurses are affected by the internal reform of the CIUSSS de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec (CIUSSS MCQ), or nearly a quarter of the employees of the health network.
The political contest in the blue room did nothing to calm the growing concern of the staff. The region would indeed be a test region. The official opposition is convinced of this. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, would have the intention of exporting it to other regions.
“The Mauricie Centre-du-Québec pilot project, he will take it and he will send it to all the regions,” proclaimed the Liberal MP and health spokesperson, André Fortin.
Minister Dubé supports the regional CEO, Nathalie Petitclerc. He reiterates that it was necessary to put an end to mandatory overtime (TSO) and avoid service disruptions in critical sectors.
“The solution she put on the table avoids service failures, because these sectors that are merged are important. Congratulations to our CEOs who have a sense of finding solutions to an exceptional situation,” he retorted.
Earlier Thursday morning, the nurses’ file raised the tone during the question period.
“Hundreds of them are thinking of quitting right now. And it is you who push them in that direction. The shortage of nurses is everywhere in Quebec, and there is only Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec that need to make people work on weekends, to force them to work on weekends. What the minister is telling us is that it would be okay to export this situation everywhere in Quebec,” dropped André Fortin.
The Minister of Health replied: “Are we going to force the 80% of people who already have unfavorable hours to do OSI or can we look in other ways? […] We will present a plan in the coming weeks where everyone will have to contribute and look at a different way of providing our health services.
The President of the Order reassured
The President of the Order of Nurses of Quebec invited the CIUSSS MCQ to open a dialogue with its employees. Luc Mathieu learned during his meeting on Wednesday with the Nursing Department that not all activity centers will be affected by the movement of personnel.
“We are reassured, but we remain concerned about this kind of operation. This should not be deployed elsewhere on a regular basis … because it would not recognize the expertise of nurses, “he added.
The issue of training was discussed and a lookout will also be in place in the sectors that call for reinforcements.
The CIUSSS MCQ told us that of the 500 nurses in Drummondville, only 15% will be moved to sectors related to their field of expertise. Next weekend, the mandatory weekend measure will apply to the entire Drummondville region.
The president of the union and the nurses were present on Thursday at the National Assembly.
The nurses also rejected 94% of the arrangement for the employer’s mergers in a general meeting. A strike is now being considered.