Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist
GASPÉ – The Gaspé Peninsula Integrated Health and Social Services Centre is still facing a $50 million deficit for the fiscal year ending March 31. The organization, however, is focusing on recovering the $40.7 million demanded by the Ministry of Health, mentioned the President and CEO Martin Pelletier following the board of directors meeting on November 28.
For the moment, there are no plans to cut jobs. “We are not there, and we are not at a hiring freeze for nurses. We are Some services under development will be reviewed to assess whether they should be maintained.
Several measures are being analyzed to meet the requirements by March. “I will tell you right away. It will not be $40 million. It will be what we can do. Forty million dollars in five months would take drastic measures. We will not do that,” says the manager. The independent workforce alone represents about $25 million of the projected deficit.
One example of a measure is to review the housing supply for the independent workforce. Currently, the ratio is one worker per housing unit. “We will implement a measure that will put two or three independent workers in a dwelling, for apartments with several bedrooms, which would eliminate dwellings,” says the president and chief executive officer (CEO).
This measure could generate savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. Pelletier is not concerned that some workers may refuse to come to the region. “Maybe. On the other hand, we are aligning ourselves with other regions. They (health workers from outside) do not come for vacations. Winter is less attractive than summer in the Gaspésie. We have a choice to make and this is an example of a hypothesis that does not affect care,” he says.
The preliminary studies to launch the engineering work for the emergency and intensive care units at the Maria hospital cannot begin before April 1 due to a lack of funds.
“We have no guarantee that the project will be included in the PQI (Quebec’s Infrastructure Program) in the next year. The guarantee we have is that we will do the studies next year and if the emergency project is only in a year, it will not prevent us from moving forward. It was an idea to get ahead of things by thinking that the project would be announced next April. We will start in April using independent nursing workers. The idea is to hire nurses to replace them. What we are going to do is not develop new services so we won’t have to create new positions for which we will not be able to respond,” says Martin Pelletier.
and we will have the year to do the analysis if the emergency project arrives in 2026,” analyzes the President and CEO.
The MRCs of Bonaventure and Avignon maintain that the project is essential for the Bay of Chaleur area.
“There were promises made. We have been waiting for more than 15 years. We reiterate that the emergency is in the PQI,” says Bonaventure Prefect Éric Dubé.
“It is a $100 million project. We estimate that for $250,000, we must find solutions to not delay this project. It’s a relatively small amount on the CISSS and health system budget. We have to find solutions,” mentions his colleague from Avignon, Mathieu Lapointe.
The elected officials will meet Martin Pelletier on December 11. However, one must not have any illusions.
“I’m going to tell them the same thing that I just explained. The relevance of the project is recognized. The problem is Quebec’s financial capacity to put this project in the PQI. It’s not at our level. It’s going to happen. When? That’s the question,” says Mr. Pelletier.