CALEB NICKERSON
SHAWVILLE June 20, 2020
The local health authority (CISSSO)’s promise to re-open the Pontiac Community Hospital (PCH)’s obstetrics unit by September will almost certainly be . . .
significantly delayed, according to a hospital employee familiar with the issue.
“Well, it certainly won’t be open by September, definitely not, because we don’t have any more nurses than we had when we closed in February,” said the source, who requested anonymity as they are not authorized to speak with media.
They explained that while they had brought on some new nursing staff, they have yet to be licensed, let alone certified for obstetrical work.
“We’ve hired since January, six, which we call CTs, those are nurse graduates that don’t have their license yet, they’re waiting to go write their exam,” the source explained. “We’ve got one that came in January, we’ve got three in May that started, one in June, one is starting in July, but because of the COVID, they haven’t written their exam yet and it’s not going to be at least until September.”
The source added that even without a global pandemic to occupy officials at the CISSSO, it was an ambitious promise to re-open the unit by September. The health authority’s Director General, Josée Filion, announced the temporary closure on February 21.
“I knew it wasn’t realistic … COVID has nothing to do with it,” they said. “Even if these girls had [gone] for their exam before … they wouldn’t have gone … until maybe May for their exam, while the ones that finished in May, they don’t write their exam until August, you know?”
In an French language interview with Radio-Canada published on June 19, the head of the local nurse’s union, Patrick Guay, also asserted that the target was “not realistic at all.”
Once the nurses complete the exam, the source said it can take up to a month for the results to return. After that, it takes an additional two- to three-month training stint in Gatineau for the nurses to be qualified for the obstetrics unit. As the source also pointed out, the new nurses can’t all be sent to the city for training at once, meaning that unless staff is temporarily brought in from elsewhere, re-opening this year will not be possible.
They said that ideally, they would have an additional 12 staff on top of the five that are currently certified to work in the OBS unit, which would provide flexibility to work around holidays and things like sick leave.
“You want a big pool of nurses that have a background in obstetrics … You don’t want to be too tight,” they said.
MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller said that a delegation from the MRC receives routine updates from the brass at CISSSO, but left it to the health authority to announce any updates on the scheduling. She said that they would be providing another update after they meet again in August.
“I think a lot of people understand, that with the COVID … the CISSSO has had to be very busy with that and they’re also bracing themselves for a second wave,” she said. But … they had made some progress and there will be more announced at the end of August after the end of our committee meeting and when they can see where things stand at that point.”
“I think that if they need a little more time, I think that we should all be understanding of the fact that we’ve had an extraordinary year [and] that we never anticipated what’s happened when they were making their announcement,” she continued. But one thing I know 200 per cent, and this is the important thing for people to know, the obstetrics unit in Shawville will reopen and there has always been a plan to keep obstetrics in the Pontiac hospital.”
The source at the hospital said that while the number of licensed nurses in other units was still suboptimal, they had seen a decrease in workload over the past few months due to the cancellation of non-essential surgeries as well as people steering clear of health care facilities.
“It gives [the nurses] a lot of extra time to spend, quality time with their patients,” they said. “[It’s a] big difference in activities … people are staying away. That’s not always a good thing, because people stay away and by the time they come in, they’re a little too sick.”
