CHRIS LOWREYHull Feb. 24, 2020
About two-dozen Pontiac residents took to the front entrance of the Hull Hospital to protest the temporary closure of the Pontiac Community Hospital’s obstetrics unit.
The group waved placards decrying the . . . hour-plus drive expectant mothers will now have to drive to deliver their babies.
While the protesters stood calmly on the sidewalk, they received several honks of support from passing vehicles.
The plan to close the obstetrics unit was announced on Friday by Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO) Director General, Josée Filion, in Shawville.
The press conference, held entirely in French, was hastily announced that morning and attended by plenty of regional media.
Filion called the decision to close until September a difficult one and said they would work to rebuild the team of nurses to eight, from the current three. Optimal staffing of the unit is 12 nurses and four doctors.
The decision to pause until September comes after repeated interruptions at the unit over the last few months due to low staffing levels.
Pontiac Liberal MNA André Fortin was on hand at the protest and was blunt when describing his feelings about the unit’s closure.
“Like everyone in the community, I was furious on Friday,” Fortin said. “I’m frustrated that it got to this point.”
He said that he’s hopeful that CISSSO will use the six months and take the time to address the problems that led to the closure.
“We want to make sure that they use those six months to rebuild the team but also find all the necessary conditions to not only attract, but retain the staff in the Pontiac,” he said.
He said the critical issue isn’t so much bringing staff to the Pontiac, but keeping them there.
“The attraction isn’t really the main issue,” Fortin said. “Because over the years, and even over the last few months, they’ve been able to attract nurses to come. It’s the retention issue that’s difficult.”
He said the issue is unique to this region because of its proximity to the provincial border and the difference in pay that nurses get in Ontario compared to Quebec.
“It’s an Outaouais problem,” Fortin said of the staff retention rate. “It’s not a problem in Trois-Rivières, it’s not a problem in Quebec City, it’s not a problem anywhere else. But here? Nurses have the option ‘Do I work in Quebec at the lower salary or do I work in Ontario at a higher salary?’”
He said that until the issue of the provincial pay gap is addressed, staffing levels could remain low.
“If we don’t solve the issue of the discrepancy of pay between the Pontiac and Renfrew County, we’re going to keep losing our nurses,” he said.
Minister responsible for the Outaouais, Mathieu Lacombe, and associate health minister Marguerite Blais were inside the hospital as the protest was happening.
Fortin said he spoke with both and asked them come out front of the hospital and meet with the protesters.
“Unfortunately, they chose to use another exit today,” Fortin said.
Three protesters – Shawville Mayor Sandra Murray, Mansfield Mayor Gilles Dionne, and Mansfield councillor Sandra Armstrong – were invited inside to voice their grievances with Filion.
Armstrong said the meeting was productive.
“They promised that in six months, it should be re-opened and they hoped before that,” she said.
The three members of the protest also offered alternative solutions while the obstetrics unit is closed.
“We offered them plan B,” Armstrong said after the meeting.
She said they proposed a plan that would allow expectant mothers in the Pontiac to use either the Arnprior hospital or the Pembroke hospital while the unit in Shawville is closed.
But Armstrong also vowed that Pontiac residents will be vocal if the deadline isn’t met.
“We won’t stop pushing,” she said. “If we need to come back, we will come back.”
The Pontaic Voice citizens group decried the closure in a press release, and announced on social media that they would be holding a rally in support at the hospital on March 1 a 2 p.m.
With files from Caleb Nickerson
