CIUSSS de l’Estrie - CHUS
Regional health authority reduces services, closes beds and operating rooms, due to staff shortages
The CIUSSS de l’Estrie - CHUS is adapting its services in hospitals across the region this summer as a result of staffing shortages. The Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital (pictured). is one hospital that will be affected. Photo taken from Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Foundation website.
The CIUSSS de l’Estrie - CHUS, the health authority that oversees the Eastern Townships, has announced the closure of 175 beds and a number of operating rooms in hospitals across the region, including the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital, as a result of expected staff shortages for the upcoming summer.
As Quebec’s health care system faces immense pressure due to challenges with staff retention and a high demand for healthcare services, the situation will grow more challenging with healthcare professionals taking vacation time, according to Robin-Marie Coleman, president adjoint-directeur general of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS.
The health authority anticipates that it will be missing 1,300 and 1,500 staff this summer, forcing it to adjust its services to continue to provide care to the population based on the resources available. According to Coleman, the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS is working closely with those that may be impacted by the reduction in its services and it’s implementing various strategies to try and reduce the stressful working conditions for its staff.
“Our organization, like many others in Quebec, are always confronted with difficulties in staff shortages in the summer period. This year it is even more significant than previous years and that’s explained by numerous things. First of all, our population coming out of the pandemic has much greater needs than we have had in the past, and also just pure demographics,” explained Coleman. “There’s less workers available that are working in order to be able to offer care and services. It was necessary to take certain steps and it’s something that has been planned by our teams for several months now in order to try to find the fragile balance to offer care and services to the population and offering necessary vacation to our employees.”
Coleman explained that the number of beds that will close at each hospital the region is different depending on the situation. Certain measures are taken depending on the context in which the the health professionals are working.
“The hospital in Cowansville, there are a certain number of beds that are going to be closed. For example, in intensive care there will three beds instead of five that will be open for a certain period of time from the end of June to the beginning of September,” she noted. “The details are different depending on the reality of each one of our local hospitals, as well as the CHU, in order to make sure to put in place different actions to compensate for the fact that some beds will be closed.”
The CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS will also be closing operating rooms across the region, despite a waitlist for surgeries. It is implementing a strategy to get them back up and running as quickly as possible, according to Coleman.
“There’s been a really interesting strategy that has been implied where for certain places we try to make sure that everyone working in the operating room takes their vacation at the same period, which is not something that happened in the past. The interesting thing is is that even though there will be some operations rooms closed in every one of our short-term care facilities, we expect that they will be closed for a shorter period of time,” she said. “In past years, we’ve closed rooms but not all of the vacations of everybody that was needed in order to re-open them properly in September were coordinated. We often ended up in September, end of September, October, and sometimes even later than that before we were able to re-open at full capacity.”
As a result of the shortage in staff, the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS will be scaling down certain services and activities to preserve the resources it does have to provide 24-hour care. Coleman emphasized that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS notified the families and individuals affected by the reduction in services and collaborated with them to find alternative services that can respond to their needs in the meantime.
“In Cowansville, if I give a specific example there, the clinic that is available for women who are ambivalent about continuing their pregnancy. We only have two points of service for that in our territory, in Cowansville and Sherbrooke. For a certain period in the summer, the service will only be offered in Sherbrooke,” mentioned Coleman. “However, we worked locally with people in order to make sure that it didn’t have an impact on the population. Any future woman that is ambivalent about continuing their pregnancy, it’s clear that they contact the planning clinic in Sherbrooke. They will be accompanied by professionals and if they need transportation they will be covered by our team as well so there will be no costs for people.”
Coleman mentioned that she is aware that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS often states that it it faces challenges with staffing, but that it’s the case "in all walks of life,” not just the healthcare system. To help its employees find balance in their personal and professional life in the midst of the staffing shortages that the healthcare system is facing, the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS has been working on a strategic plan to be an “employer of choice” in the region, said Coleman.
“We can’t get discouraged because we have an amazing plan to transform, I would say, the way that we offer care and services, which might bring changes for the population in the way that they consume services. However, the status quo is not possible. There’s certain things that maybe were always done that are not demonstrated scientifically to give results,” she explained. “(…) We have a few examples of really interesting projects where we’re trying to change a little bit the status quo and do things differently.”
One short-term initiative that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS has implemented is giving more control to employees to do their scheduling.
“It might sound like it’s not a huge initiative, but it’s a great initiative because it re-gives them the power to decide. In a certain department for example, the teams get together now and determine the schedules together in relation to, for example, what my personal obligations are in the next month and my colleagues,” explained Coleman. “There’s a collegiality I would say in determining the needs, which takes off a lot of pressure. A lot of our employees state that forced overtime, (…) when you haven’t had time to plan in advance you personal activities, taking care of the kids, etc., that is what is really hurtful as far as the pressure that we can add on employees for external factors.”
While Coleman recognizes that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS’ announcements “may sounds scary,” it is asking for the public’s cooperation, and it thanks its employees, doctors, nurses, and volunteers for “all of their hard work.”
“I know that we have a great population. I know that people are going to collaborate to their best of their ability, but I reiterate that if there are urgent situations don’t hesitate, don’t wait, consult and you will be treated. A lot of patients that have regular services have case managers and they will still be available. They can help navigate through the system as well,” she said. “(…) We’re really lucky to have such great people work for our population. I hope that everyone will be able to find the balance that we’re searching for between offering care to the population and taking care of them. I always say, we have to take care of those whom take care of others.”
CIDI reached out to la Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec - Syndicat des professionnelles en soins des Cantons-de-l'Est (FIQ-SPSCE) - a union that represents healthcare professionals across the Townships - for comment but it did not get back to us before press time. However, in an open letter to media outlets Nadia Stéphanie Ouellet, a member of the FIQ-SPSCE and a nurse at the CHUS Fleurimont hospital for the past 20 years, denounced the staffing shortages.
CIDI will continue to follow-up with the FIQ-SPSCE on this story.
Listen to the full interview below for more details: