![]() in the next two or three years," Etienne said. They want to concentrate all the labs in the greater Monteregie area. "They want to remove the labs from there. The APTS is asking that the government offer incentives to lab technicians now working and offer bursaries to attract students to the field.Įtienne also said a recent outbreak of a potentially fatal and contagious fungus at Pierre Boucher Hospital in Longueuil, should make the government think twice about its Optilab expansion plans. She also said enrolments in medical technology training programs are down, and it's more difficult for current students to do internships because labs in certain regions have closed. They're devaluing the profession, and we can see that in the health plan, laboratories are completely absent," Etienne said. The APTS last spoke with the health ministry on May 11, 2022, to again propose solutions. "That means either you save the patient or you kill the patient," depending on the quality of the analysis, she said. There's an expertise required to obtain accurate results. ![]() One of the government's solutions to the staffing shortage is to pull in less qualified technicians to carry out analyses that require a higher level of training, she said, singling out blood banks. She said the Gaspesie region and others risk losing local lab services altogether. They're good soldiers, and they deserve to be recognized, but the government doesn't value them," said Etienne. "In Gaspesie, it came out that some are saying they're working 14 days in a row." "What's happening now in most blood banks across Quebec is that people have to stay to do double shifts," she said. As a result, Etienne said that some chose to leave the profession, unwilling or unable to travel farther or move to a different region. Staff had to leave local labs to work at central labs in other locations. Some experts in Quebec have compared Optilab, as it's called, to a forced merger that aimed to optimize lab services but instead created gaps in the system. The process began in 2017 but hasn't yet been implemented in all regions. The APTS blames many of the problems with low staffing levels, overtime and lab closures on the then-Liberal government's decision to centralize lab services in the province. "The use of private mini-hospitals, subcontracting, and private employment agencies will not fix the flaws of the RSSS (health-care system)," he said. On Thursday, after Premier Francois Legault's new cabinet was sworn-in, the president of the APTS, Robert Comeau asked the ministry to address the labour shortage "plaguing the system immediately."Ĭomeau said Health Minister Christian Dube has to be "realistic." Without the ability to make that information available to the medical teams in time, certain surgeries couldn't proceed. "There was a situation at CHUM," Etienne explained, "a postponement of surgeries because of the personnel shortage" in a critical part of the lab system: the hospital's blood bank.īlood bank technologists analyze patients' blood samples before surgery to ensure they don't receive blood infusions that "can attack their blood cells," said Etienne. She gave two recent examples of how vital it is for hospitals to have high-functioning labs and, in one instance, how the system failed. And now the situation is even more critical," said Sandra Etienne, vice president of Syndicat APTS, a union representing professional and technical health and social services personnel. It affects results, and diagnoses are delayed. "There is a crisis situation in labs that already affects the health of the population. The union representing Quebec's laboratory technicians says the quality of services in hospital labs will continue to affect patient care if the government doesn't act quickly to stop it.
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