Five of six full-time techs to stay in Pontiac

K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

Radiology technologists in four rural Outaouais hospitals, including the Pontiac Hospital in Shawville, will receive an additional $4,000 bonus, matching the $22,000 bonuses offered previously to technologists in Gatineau, Hull and Papineau hospitals, per an announcement by the union representing the technologists on Saturday.

The APTS (Alliance du personnel professionel et technique de la santé et des service sociaux) and the province’s treasury board engaged in discussions last week, finally coming to a decision on Friday night.

In a French tweet to X over the weekend, provincial health minister Christian Dubé said the committee working on the negotiations received “information” about the “complete movements of labour in the Outaouais” that led it to take action.

Four of the six radiology technologists working full-time at the Pontiac hospital were slated to leave their positions as of Monday, which was the official start date of their new jobs in higher-paying jobs in Gatineau and Hull.

On Monday morning, CISSSO’s Pontiac representative Nicole Boucher-Larivière confirmed that four of the five full-time techs who had applied to Gatineau have withdrawn their applications and are staying in their jobs at the Pontiac hospital.

APTS Outaouais president Guylaine Laroche said the final result helped avoid a possible staffing crisis at the hospital.

“As of Monday morning there would have been the departure of the technologists to the city, so we would have found ourselves in a break of service in the hospital, which could have led to the closing of the hospital because the radiology department is important for medical diagnostic services,” she said in a French interview with THE EQUITY last week.

Laroche said her members are generally happy about the result. “We are satisfied that there is a regional parity for all of our members in radiology,” she said. 

She said it’s good for the technologists, many of whom are deeply connected to the community.

“Our technologists live in that community, they are connected to that community, so it’s good for our technologists, but I also think it’s a great decision and agreement for local services.”

Judith Spence, spokesperson for Citizens of the Pontiac (CoP) and also a former nurse, has been a vocal supporter of the radiologists receiving equal bonuses.

She said she was happy with the result because it’s what they deserve.

“It’s a wonderful thing. It says [the radiology technologists] have value equal to all their other peers.”

As a former nurse Spence has seen how essential the work of the technologists is, and by retaining them, she said, the hospital avoids losing an essential diagnostic service.

“Doctors will have [ . . . ] radiology services, one of the three tools to make a diagnosis for a patient,” she said.

Spence, who helped in canvassing the public to raise funds via GoFundMe to give the technologists a bonus, will now return that money to the donors, save for a small percentage that will be retained by GoFundMe.

The announcement of the bonus didn’t come without questions from the union, though. The government’s decision to offer an additional $4,000 to rural technologists comes with a condition: technologists must work six shifts in other Outaouais hospitals, according to the employer’s needs, a condition her members have questions about and will continue to negotiate going forward.

Going forward, the hospital will retain five of its six full-time radiology technologists. But Laroche pointed out the hospitals are already operating with a shortage of technicians and lack radiology service at night, and that there are vacant radiology positions at all of CISSSO’s hospitals. She said the loss of any number of technologists is going to be felt.

“At a minimum you need people to cover both day shifts and night shifts. They are already below what they would need to operate at full capacity,” she said in French.

“So if there were people who had to leave for the urban centre, certainly there would be fewer appointments available.”

Boucher-Larivière said with the five technologists staying and the two retirees that help out, they will be able to maintain current levels of services at the hospital.

Going forward, the condition of the bonus will allow CISSSO to move around employees from different hiospitals to cover shifts in case of a breach of service.

She said they will negotiate with the local union this week to discuss specifics of what staffing decisions are going to look like going forward, but she said the priority is going to be for emergency services.

“Emergency and high-priority cases [ . . . ] like diagnosing cancer. Those are things that are going to be a priority, but things that are more done as a routine or done as a preventative measure might have to wait a little bit longer.”

Laroche was happy with the result of the bonus, but she said her union’s fight is not over.

These bonuses only apply to full-time technologists, and she said the union will continue to fight for all the part-time technologists that are so far not benefitting from this incentive.

“We are happy, but at the same time there are some of our members who do not benefit from the bonus, and that’s our part-time technologists. They work shifts that are often undesirable, like at night or on weekends, so for us we won’t be fully satisfied until our part-time members will also be able to get these bonuses.”

Laroche said her union will continue to fight for full-time and part-time technologists alike.

THE EQUITY reached out to the province’s health ministry to try and understand why the bonus money wasn’t released sooner, but did not receive a response before going to publication.