Over the weekend there was a significant disruption to the emergency and intensive care units at the Gatineau Hospital.
Nurses in both departments staged a sit-in on Friday morning to protest chronic short-staffing issues, which resulted in short breaks in the services (40 minutes for emergency and 80 for the ICU), until the health authority could find enough staff to cover the bases. There was another break in intensive care services the following day which . . .
lasted longer.
As the head of the regional nurse’s union Patrick Guay explained to Radio-Canada, nurses have the right to refuse to work in an under-staffed unit until a solution is found by their employer.
He added that these weren’t the first sit-ins to take place. If I were a betting man, I would gamble my paycheque that these won’t be the last such protests to take place at that facility. It’s perfectly natural that employees who are underpaid, understaffed and underappreciated are going to hit their breaking point some time.
If there’s one silver lining to be taken from this terrible situation, it’s that we in the Pontiac are not alone. The folks down in the city are dealing with similar issues when it comes to health care. That’s not to say that rural people should rejoice in some urban misfortune, but it should be seen as an opportunity to join forces.
Let’s face it, issues in urban areas get more attention than those in our region ever will, so if there was a time to put pressure on the current provincial government and their Outaouais representative Mathieu Lacombe, it’s now.
Though our current representative in the National Assembly may be a top performer in his party, the Quebec Liberals aren’t in power and likely won’t be for the foreseeable future (given how disastrous their health care amalgamation bill was for this region, it might be counted as a blessing).
It’s been shown that residents of this region receive less health care funding per capita than the rest of the province, a fact that Lacombe himself has publicly acknowledged. Not only that, but as a border region we lose a lot of our labour force to the higher wage positions across the river in Ontario. What’s stopping Lacombe’s government from taking steps to rectify the situation?
This crisis needs to be translated into the language that all politicians understand: votes. With enough added voices in the city calling for an immediate response to the nursing shortage, this issue might finally get the attention of Quebec City.
Though we still need to champion our own causes, like the closed obstetrics department at the hospital, more resources for our whole region would be a good thing. Increased pay for nurses would be a good start. Improved working conditions also couldn’t hurt.
As the infamous British goon (and former Prime Minister) Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Caleb Nickerson
