Since February 2020, young families in the Pontiac have not been able to access one of the fundamental services at the Pontiac Hospital due to a pause that had been announced in order to rebuild the obstetrics unit team.

Concerns around the opening of the obstetrics unit is still a major concern in the region.

Since closures were first announced families have had to . . .

travel up to an hour to deliver their babaies in the city which has caused many families added stress. In addition, a petition was initiated by an advocacy group, the Pontiac County Women’s Institute (PCWI) which called on the provincial government ,to put measures in place to relaunch the obstetrics service in Shawville as quickly as possible. It was signed by 1055 Pontiacers.

It was later presented to the legislature in Quebec City by MNA André Fortin as it has been a contentious issue for young mothers in the region.

In an email response on July 15, The Centre intégré de santé et des services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO) said they would like to resume activities as soon as possible, but the shortage of personnel is still delaying the return of this service in the territory. CISSSO highlighted that they are taking several measures in the ongoing effort to recruit nurses, midwives and physicians but they are also losing many nurses.

“These efforts have yielded few results and we have seen many nurses (all services combined) leave the RLS Pontiac for Ontario hospitals since March 2019,” said Patricia Rhéaume, media relations person.

One of the reasons Quebec is losing nurses to Ontario is because the government has not implemented competitive salaries and competitive work conditions said Fortin.

Although there is the promise of a new hospital in Gatineau, it does not discount the fact that there is still a recruitment and attraction problem for nurses in Quebec. Fortin said the top priority for the province should be the attraction of nurses.

“We can work on a hospital project in Gatineau that may save the day in 12 years. But before then people in our region expect the government will put forward initiatives to meet those needs,” said Fortin.

He also talked about the impact of Bill 96 on healthcare in regards to access to services in a person’s own language and in terms of nurses leaving the region because of the bill.

“Our party is the only one who said we would repeal all parts of Bill 96 that have to do with healthcare because getting access to health care in your own language is a fundamental right that should be respected in Quebec,” said Fortin.

Bill 96 also places a cap on the number of students that Heritage College can accept, which means it can not bridge the gap of the shortage of nurses and can not increase the number of nurses they are currently training, explained Fortin. “That is a problem for our future recruitment of nurses at the Pontiac Hospital and in our Pontiac healthcare establishments.”

“The CAQ has shown over the last four years that improving nurses working conditions in our regions in the Pontiac region is not their priority. They’ve had many chances many opportunities to increase those nurses’ salaries to increase their working conditions and they’ve chosen not to do that,” said Fortin.

Current updates of how the Pontiac Hospital is doing

Two surgeons who perform C-sections are over 60 years old and as their retirement is approaching there is no one to replace them.

Rhéaume explained that at the Pontiac Hospital, the obstetrics unit is incorporated into the acute care unit. She said that the unit should be run by 12 nurses, but could operate with eight nurses. The unit currently has only three obstetrical nurses, “which is insufficient to take over the services in the hospital,” said Rhéaume.

In addition, the midwife who was doing full pregnancy follow-ups at the Pontiac Hospital for one day a week has left. Rhéaume added that the midwives of the Maison de naissance de Gatineau perform pregnancy follow-ups for pregnant women in the Pontiac who are willing to travel. This service is something they are also working on getting back into the region, she said.

“It is important to note that we are experiencing great challenges in recruiting nurses for all our sectors in the Pontiac. Most of the new nurses in this region are bilingual, but have English as their first language, which makes the nearby Ontario hospitals attractive – and the salary differential is considerable,” said Rhéaume.

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