(Montreal) The Dubé reform poses an “undeniable risk” to the continuity of patient care and to care in remote regions because it requires increased staff mobility, the FIQ judged.
Posted at 6:18 am
Lia Levesque The Canadian Press
The Interprofessional Health Association, which represents 80,000 nurses, assistants and other health workers, makes that harsh judgment in the brief it has sent to the Health and Social Services Commission examining Bill 15 tabled by Minister Christian Dubé.
In addition, the FIQ and FIQP (private) believe that the bill “under the cloak of laudable goals” “endangers the universality, accessibility, equity and quality of care and trade union democracy,” she says.
The FIQ agrees with the minister: the status quo is no longer acceptable; We need a culture change, local management and more efficient structures.
mobility problems
Because there will be a single employer — Santé Québec — and because Québec wants a single seniority per worker for all of Québec rather than per facility, the FIQ concludes that the nurses must demonstrate “increased and unlimited mobility” to meet the agency’s requirements are equivalent to.
And this phenomenon worries him. “Is it reasonable to think that a school nurse can work overnight with the elderly or in the intensive care unit? »
“It is also possible that mobility within the network has a negative impact on access to care in certain regions remote from major centers or in certain sectors of care, be it CHSLDs or hospitals. In particular, care facilities that are known for their problematic work organization could be given up in favor of more attractive facilities,” judges the FIQ.
With regard to the risks for the continuity of care, the FIQ justifies its fears with the expected increased mobility of the staff. “Not only is there nothing in the project to ensure the stability and adequate staffing of care teams, but if so adopted it would destabilize and further weaken care teams by allowing excessive mobility,” she writes.
She cites the example of CHSLDs who have faced tremendous hardship at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Staff mobility negatively impacts the quality of care provided and contributes to the spread of infections and viruses. »
Too much privacy
The reform also relies too heavily on the private sector, especially in the specialized medical centers, “the big winners of this reform”, judges the FIQ.
The law “must not become a Trojan horse that marks the end of the public network that emerged from the silent revolution, by allowing the private sector to replace the state in some of its most basic functions, with or without profit vulnerable people, particularly in home care and mental health”.
Too centralized
The FIQ fears that the Dubé reform will also result in an overly centralized network that will lose its ability to adapt to local realities and whose local managers will in fact have little leeway.
“Bill No. 15 will only accentuate this loss of contact with the field, especially with management,” says the union organization.