Over the past year, up to 50 nurses from outside the Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent have had to sleep at Hôpital du Suroît between shifts. Néomédia tried to find out more about the workforce problem facing the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest. 

Over the past year, the healthcare establishment has been hard hit by the problem. Because local recruitment of nursing staff is so difficult, the CISSSMO has to rely on private employment agencies to obtain the services of nurses. These nurses often come from outside the region. 

With nursing staff working up to 16 hours a day, shift after shift, it's easier for out-of-town employees to sleep on the job than to head home. 

In fact, special rooms have been set aside for this purpose on the 4th floor of the hospital. Rest assured, however, that these rooms will not affect hospital capacity, says the CISSSMO by e-mail. 

How do you explain the labour shortage? 

When asked about the difficulty of recruiting staff, the healthcare authority points out that the placement agencies with which it collaborates through the Centre d'acquisition gouvernementale were unable to meet its needs in terms of nursing staff, particularly in the summer of 2022, when the impacts of COVID were still acute in the healthcare network. 

According to the CISSSMO, this "difficulty in obtaining personnel can be explained by the fact that the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Haut-Saint-Laurent regions, where Hôpital du Suroît and Hôpital Barrie-Memorial are located respectively, are particularly remote. Attractiveness remains a major challenge. This challenge is shared by many other regions in Quebec". 

What are the consequences of this staff shortage? "There are major consequences, including the closure of care units. The closure of a care unit in Suroit is equivalent to the loss of 32 hospital beds. The consequences for patients are major, and the impact on emergency room overcrowding is critical. 

As a result, the CISSSMO has had to implement measures to obtain the required manpower: 

- Payment of mileage for people living more than 50 km from the hospital, at a rate of $0.54/km. 

- Possibility of free accommodation for CISSS and agency staff in a section of the hospital in rooms set aside for this purpose (this does not change the hospitalization capacity). Less than 50 employees took advantage of this measure.

To have access to accommodation, staff must live more than 50 km from Hôpital du Suroît. 

"All these measures are aimed at one thing: providing care and services to our users and ensuring the health and well-being of the population, while providing access to our emergency rooms and hospital beds," we conclude by e-mail.