Quebec Government Response to Covid-19
It is interesting to see the narrative that has played out over the past two years in the publicity that health-care workers have gotten. For years, they have been a forgotten and un-heard voice. Then in the spring of 2020, they were heroes, without any word of how they had been treated in previous years.
One year later and if they don't fall in line with government vaccination mandates, they are threatened with being fired. The Premier backed down on that threat when he realized that he was trying to recruit desperately needed nurses on the one hand while getting rid of fully trained nurses on the other. This might not go over too well with the public, if he actually followed through.
He didn't back down on recent labour negotiations with the Nurses union, of course, so they are still in the same abysmal work environment situation. A couple of years ago, the Quebec provincial government told health-care workers they would only negotiate with a single union from then on and the workers would no longer have any choice in who would represent them. Fast forward two years into the pandemic, some nurses found support in the truckers convoy. It looks like truckers can get things moving faster than their labour union can these days. Since the province threatening their mental health and their jobs wasn't enough, the federal government now went after their bank accounts.
So, I am re-publishing this now to give you an overview of the health-care situation in Quebec, Canada. There are some similarities in other provinces, and no doubt, other countries
{ ORIGINALLY POSTED Apr 21, 2020 }
Since several people have expressed interest in what is happening in my home province, I thought that maybe I can give some perspective, since I’m still here as a witness. My apologies ahead of time if I leave out some details for brevity’s sake, or if I didn’t succeed in being brief enough for you.
Several years ago, the government decided to reduce the number of nurses to cut costs. Not to worry, they said, we won’t fire them, just by attrition there will become fewer staff. What that meant in reality is that the most senior staff with the experience, who had been getting fed up with the bureaucracy, took a package and left. This meant the fewer staff who were remaining were pushed into positions they weren’t ready for, and with no support, while having to do more with fewer staff.
Covid Strikes
So, going into this, all health-care centres, public and private (which in reality is regulated and contracted by the public system), had a minimal staff to begin with. The latest re-structuring meant that no facility had control over their own call back list anymore; it was grouped together by region. The first thing the government did in response to the pandemic was to off load patients from acute care hospitals to senior's residences (CHSLD), while commandeering their PPE for the hospital in their region. This was to free up beds and equipment in acute care hospitals for an influx of Covid patients. The second was to close off all seniors’ residences to families, who may bring in the disease with them.
Makes sense, right? Well, this meant that the overworked staff, who rely on families to help with feeding, etc. now had more work to do. Then, came the regulation that any worker with any symptoms had to step down, meaning that they were now short staffed. Here’s where the control over the call back list comes in. Every facility has to compete for the same few spare nurses on call. So, they have to work at one place one week and another the next. It was no surprise that an outbreak at one facility was soon followed by an outbreak at another.
So, guess what the next government regulation was? Of course, forbid any worker from going from one facility to another, to help stop the spread of the virus! Makes sense, right?! So, people start getting overworked, falling ill, self quarantining, getting scared and voila, we are short-staffed by 2000 health-care workers. Now how did that happen, I wonder?
I never thought we’d hear the former PQ minister, Premier Legault, thank the federal government for sending in the army!! The world must be coming to an end! But at this point, there’s not much choice; we need somebody to man the stations in senior’s residences. It’s better than his idea about recruiting doctors, which was unbelievably insulting to all involved. Hopefully, the soldiers can learn fast on the job and assist. But there were, however, better choices that could have been made all along the way.
Some Historical Background
Successive Quebec governments have every decade or so, completely restructured the health-care system, throwing everything into turmoil with all different bosses in charge of different facilities (merging hospitals, connecting community clinics (CLSCs) to them, splitting them up again, only to recombine them again a few years ago).
Every time this happens, this adds to another big issue, which is the preponderance of middle management in health-care This is compounded by the fact that they are generally not trained as managers, but are moved up from the floor. In my experience, qualities that make a great technician or nurse, are not necessarily the traits that make a great boss. What can then happen is an out of control department with a bitchy environment where the biggest bitch gets to be the boss (my commentary).
All this does not produce a healthy work environment to work in. Yes, of course people went in to nursing because they want to help people and with a big heart and wonderful intentions, got into nursing. After a while, that gets beaten out of people.
Another aspect to all of this is that the professional orders tend to believe the accuser first and, without legal representation or assistance, the nurse or therapist must defend herself to prove her innocence. Unions also tend to be of little help, and you should just forget about the middle management having your back.
Needless to say, that doesn’t alleviate the stress of the daily job, knowing that you may well be thrown under the bus if anything goes sideways as you are nearing the end of your 12-hr shift. Add to that, the reality that nurses can’t effectively strike and have a much poorer pay scale than, say, bus drivers who have conducted effective strikes for decades (not that I approve of their methods).
It is no wonder that most of the people who graduated in the 80's and 90's, are no longer in the profession. Choice: Deal with this every day, or quit and become a skating coach? Who needs it? It’s a shame, but I can’t blame them.
And it’s really rough on those who still feel called to stay and fight for our families. Bless them in any way you can.
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