Health: you have to find the right remedy…

We have never had so many nurses and doctors in Quebec.

Yet rarely have we seen the health care system so in bad shape and so close to breaking point.

We were impatiently awaiting Minister Christian Dubé’s announcement.

Even if we all want to give the runner a chance, the three proposals of the crisis unit were met with some suspicion.

Let’s sum up: we’re going to do better what we’re already doing or we’re going to do what we wanted to do, but couldn’t do.

The enhanced 811, two specialized nurse practitioner (SNP) clinics in Montreal and the purchase of 1,700 beds are good measures.

On the other hand, we are not attacking the heart of the problem: the humans in the network.

It takes workers to be with patients in beds, to answer 811, to provide service in IPS clinics.

Workers who are exhausted. At the end of a dehumanized mismanagement, of time slots to fill. A management where the directors impose a single way of doing things for everyone rather than listening and collaborating, according to the testimonies of many workers.

Nurses who wanted a life, who wanted to see their children, who wanted to have dinner with the family, and who were fed up swelled the ranks of private agencies.

Today, we are experiencing the effects of this exodus.

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Primum non nocere

One of the basic principles in medicine: first, do no harm or do no harm.

We should apply this principle to our network: stop making the problem worse.

Nurses who remain in the public network must do more, including mandatory overtime (TSO). Frustration and discouragement multiply. Even more nurses could drop out of the network.

Breaking the vicious circle will require bold, possibly radical, moves.

Before closing certain emergency rooms to pool current resources, as proposed by Dr. Bernard Mathieu, we could look at the management of schedules.

Nurse Natalie Stake-Doucet, like many of her colleagues, is calling for an end to the OSI.

Finished

Yes, beds will need to be closed overnight.

Yes, in the short term, it may be more difficult. But in the medium term, we will avoid the worst.

Yes, workers and unions will have to be flexible and creative, but we are capable of taking this risk.

If someone injures their ankle and stays on a crutch because they are afraid of hurting, their ankle will not return to function. He will most likely have back pain from the crutches.

Learning to wean off crutches is necessary to start walking again, even if the first steps will not be easy…

And to give the runner a chance, our network has to start running again.