Two end-of-life patients die in Chikotimi emergency room corridors

In Sagune-Lock-Saint-Jean, two patients died at the end of their lives in the corridors of Chikitimi Hospital’s emergency room due to lack of space on the floors.

Bed shortages are said to be linked to labor shortages affecting the regional health network.

According to information obtained by TVA Novelles, one of these patients has cancer. At Sagune Palliative Care Home, we confirmed that patients had to be rejected because there were no places.

Twelve beds are available, but currently only nine are operational due to staff shortages.

“It’s unfortunate, but our staff has been trained to deal with this kind of situation. We create privacy to keep families close to the individual. ”

She declined to disclose details of the two incidents.

This is not acceptable to Julie Bouchard, president of the FIQ affiliate Healthcare Professionals Union.

“This is an unacceptable context,” Ms Bouchard said. Providing lifelong care in the hospital corridor is psychologically very difficult. ”

Nurses from the Chikotimi emergency department were able to find their employer the ultimatum compromise that began Wednesday, but in the short term, there were no quick fixes.

“No one has a magic wand, but our representatives are happy with the return of management,” she said. We would also like to thank the workers who have already worked in the emergency room and have agreed to return to overtime work in the coming days. ”

Another meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. Nearly 12,000 shifts are required for the summer, or 9% of the total shifts. A list of workers who want to volunteer has been published.

“We are trying to get out of the dynamic of mandatory overtime to allow our workers to choose better,” Ms Labbe said. School nurses were also called and some of them responded positively. ”

Health officials should be blamed for the lack of 1,400 workers in the regional network.

“We have staff in post-traumatic shockంతో with the hardest year,” she said. Our workers had vacations last summer, but we got caught up in COVID, so they desperately need to have vacations this summer. We know about the fatigue of our teams on the field. ”

There is no short-term question of closing services permanently. Only temporary modulations are expected.

Julie Labbe wants to reassure citizens: “The population must come and seek services and have the services they need.”