Published May 27, 2024

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

A patients’ rights group is raising the alarm after the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS announced plans to temporarily close 12 beds at the CHSLD de Bedford this summer.

While several long-term care facilities in the region are slated to temporarily lose beds this summer because of anticipated staffing shortages, the loss of 12 beds in Bedford’s 42-bed facility is proportionally the largest planned cut in the La Pommeraie local service area, according to Pierrette Messier-Peet, co-spokesperson for the Bedford Pole Health Committee.

Messier-Peet said she understood the labour shortage and the need for staff to take summer vacations, but worried that moving CHSLD residents would compromise their care and make it harder for family members and informal caregivers to visit. “Everyone knows someone [in Bedford or the surrounding towns] who has been sent to Farnham or Cowansville because there’s no room in Bedford, and now there’s even less room,” she said, adding that her uncle, a resident of the CHSLD de Bedford, had been moved four times in the last year. “These are very vulnerable people; this is their last address and there’s nowhere else for them to go. Being moved around will disorient people and even hasten their deaths.”

She also worried that the closure of the beds would be permanent. “The labour shortage won’t end by magic in September,” she said. She also worried about the implications of the bed closures for the CHSLD’s long-delayed expansion project.

CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS spokesperson Nancy Corriveau sought to allay Messier-Peet’s concerns about relocation. “The temporary closure of these beds will be done gradually by not filling the places left by the departure of users,” she said. “It is also possible that some residents will receive an offer to be relocated to a desired environment. Not all residents wishing to stay at the Bedford CHSLD will be relocated.”

Corriveau said the CIUSSS was expecting to be able to reopen the beds in September.  “Regarding the renovation project, we are currently under evaluation in order to consider the evolving needs of the population and the availability of staff,” she added.

Messier-Peet noted that in response to a labour shortage in acute care hospitals in the Côte-Nord region earlier this spring, Health Minister Christian Dubé had dispatched a mobile team, known in health sector jargon as an équipe volante (“flying team”). “We’d love a flying team down here.”

Messier-Peet said Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge Mayor Daniel Tétreault, the point person on health issues for the Bedford pole, is working on addressing the issue with local elected officials. Neither Tétreault nor the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS was available to comment at press time.

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