Parti Québécois health critic comments on service breakdowns in the Outaouais
Parti Québécois health critic comments on service breakdowns in the Outaouais
The MNA for Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Parti Québécois health critic, Joël Arseneau, spoke to CHIP 101.9 about the recent interruptions to emergency services. He believes that it stems from a lack of planning on the part of the Health Minister.
According to Arseneau, the government should table solutions to addres the lack of personnel and poor working conditions in the health network. He said that the government should be more flexible to retain staff and avoid situations like that of the Pontiac Hospital’s obstetrics unit, which closed “temporarily” in 2019 and still hasn’t reopened.
« The Minister preferred to manage closures piecemeal and resort to mandatory overtime and Order 2020-007 to fill service gaps, no upstream preparation was made to ensure essential care and services remained open to the population. Additional measures should have been deployed, in collaboration with the unions, to be able to get through the summer and reduce the strain in our hospitals. The Minister urgently needs to take concrete action and present a contingency plan.»
– Parti Québécois MNA Joël Arseneau
The CISSS de l’Outaouais has not yet announced a plan to return obstetrics services in the Pontiac. The complete interview with Joël Arseneau (in French only) is available here.
