Deploring an “unsustainable situation”, Health Minister Christian Dubé announced that a mediator has been appointed to calm the crisis in the emergency room at Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, where the majority of nurses are still threatening to resign. .
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“It’s not every day that nurses make the decision a few hours before the start of their shift to tell us they won’t be returning. It’s an unbearable situation,” Christian Dubé presented on Tuesday afternoon during a press conference in front of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR) hospital.
However, the health secretary said he “understood” the situation faced by caregivers and expressed he took their demands seriously.
“I rely a lot on the goodwill of everyone. It’s not pretty what they had to do last night to make their point. I have a lot of empathy and that’s why I’ve come here a lot this year,” he said.
Newly assigned Head of Unit
On Monday, evening shift nurses rejected the contingency plan drawn up by hospital managers, who wanted them to work as a reduced team. However, according to the nurses, this plan would have created an overload and put the health and safety of the patients at risk.
Faced with threats from a hundred nurses on Wednesday that they would resign if the head of their unit is not replaced, the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal has made the decision to reallocate them to other duties.
“The person in question is not responsible for the fact that we take more patients than we can take,” Jean-François Fortin-Verreault, CEO of CIUSSS, said during another news conference on Tuesday. But it is certain that the relationship with the team is not there, so we will reuse the person but not in direct relationship with the team.
arbitration
Hoping to find “passageways” between nurses and managers, an arbitrator was appointed who “comes and tries to find other solutions,” announced Christian Dubé.
“It’s very common in situations like the one we’re going through right now,” he said. This outside consultant will listen to both parties to see if we still have a long way to go to get along or if we are getting closer.
reconciliations?
The CEO said he spoke to nurses for 1.5 hours Monday night to “take stock of the situation”. And according to Christian Dubé, a meeting with the arbitrator also took place on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Mr Fortin Verreault and the Health Secretary’s first objective is to “work to bring the volume down” at HMR to give exhausted caregivers a break, particularly through mandatory overtime (TSO).
“The first is that we are being supported by the health network to reduce the number of ambulances arriving at HMR in the emergency room. It will give the teams some breathing space and that is the first step. You have to start having a little less volume, have a work-family balance,” said the CEO of the CIUSSS.
The reduction in volume should then make it possible to attract more nursing staff, says Christian Dubé.
“Places where I don’t have OSI anymore, places where I have a better work environment, have a lot less trouble getting people to work,” he said.
“That’s why I’m telling you that it’s important to me, the CEO and his team, to work on the working atmosphere right now. And I think there has been a very strong alarm signal,” added the minister.
An “active volcano,” says QS
The current crisis at HMR comes as no surprise to solidarity officer Vincent Marissal. “It was very predictable! Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital is an active volcano and we have been seeing smoke for years. If Christian Dubé didn’t see it, it’s because he didn’t want to see it,” explained Mr. Marissal during a press conference on Tuesday.
“The question wasn’t if there would be an eruption, but when!” he added.
Furthermore, the MP believes that if we want to prevent this situation from repeating itself in a few months, it is necessary to address the ‘root problem’.
“There has been a problem with the renovation and rebuilding of this hospital for years. But we’re not moving forward, we’re going backwards,” he said.
“We need a new hospital. It takes a real plan with a real schedule and a real budget. If we could already send that message there, we would give a lot of hope to the population and the people who work here,” concluded Mr. Marissal.