The roots of the crisis at Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont go beyond work climate issues. The excessively busy hospital establishment in relation to its reception capacity has also contributed to the shortage of personnel which is raging there. At least that’s what mediator Lisa Lavallée observes in a recent report The duty got a copy on Tuesday.
Mme Lavallée was appointed on January 16 by the Ministry of Health, when a hundred nurses from the hospital center demanded the departure of their head of unit and threatened to resign en bloc. They then deplored the toxic work climate within their unit, as well as a generalized recourse to compulsory overtime.
In a three-page document, the mediator of the Ministry of Labor identifies various measures aimed at improving labor relations within the establishment. “The challenge is considerable, since it involves finding how to serve the population served by the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal while taking into account the health and safety of staff nurse in the emergency room, and their work-life balance needs,” writes Ms.me The valley.
The mediator also immediately notes that the hospital capacity of the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, which includes Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, no longer meets the needs of residents in the sector. In fact, this CIUSSS serves 27% of the population of Montreal, but only has 19% of the stretchers and 16% of the beds in the metropolitan hospital network.
This results in an imbalance between the demand from citizens and the hospital’s capacity, which creates “increased clinical pressure on the teams on a daily basis”.
Breathless nurses send their resignation letters, in particular because of the increased use of compulsory overtime that this particular context entails, notes the mediator. This is how the shortage of staff has become “particularly acute” at Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont. “Several stakeholders feel that it is becoming difficult to provide a level of care that meets the standards of good practice, which the population of the east of the island is entitled to expect,” notes the report.
Lisa Lavallée thus recommends that the Ministry of Health put in place measures aimed at “reducing clinical pressure” and “increasing the number of nurses available in emergency and hospitalization services” so that they stop to be confronted with a demand “significantly superior” to the resources available in the emergency rooms on the east of the island of Montreal.
Appoint “a neutral third party”
The Lavallée mediator also recommends that a mandate be given to “a neutral and impartial third party” to carry out a diagnosis of the work climate in the emergency room of Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. A follow-up committee would be set up in parallel “to ensure the implementation of an action plan”, the details and timelines of which would be presented to emergency personnel, she also suggests. .
Moreover, Lisa Lavallée notes the importance of improving communication between the management and union parties “to ensure a better understanding of the issues and mobilization of all emergency resources”. The mediator therefore recommends that the management of Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont better communicate its decisions and orientations, as well as “make sure to give answers to the questions” of its employees in order to restore trust between workers and managers.