Nurses at the Cité-de-la-Santé Hospital in Laval have had enough of chronic staff shortages that often force them to work a double shift of 16 hours in a day, their union said.
"It's too much, and you see it, the nurses that are there say 'I can't take it anymore,'" said Louise Beaulieu, responsible for labour relations at the SIIIAL-CSQ.
Staff are often forced to work mandatory overtime to cover the vacancies, according to Beaulieu, leaving many burnt out and creating chaos in their personal lives.
"One [single mother] said I have kids to get at 4 p.m. and the employer comes at 3:45 saying you going to have to stay—she was crying, and she said, 'what am I going to do with my kids?'"
Over the weekend, nurses engaged in sit-ins at work to protest the lack of staff, refusing to start their shift because not enough personnel could be found to field a full team.
The emergency room has been reporting being above capacity throughout the week. On Wednesday, the hospital reported an occupancy rate of 124 per cent, meaning there were not enough stretchers available for admitted patients.
"For 49 stretchers, you could have up to 75 people who are waiting," Beaulieu explained.
Health Minister Gaetan Barrette weighed in this week, pointing to Cité-de-la-Santé posting 40 positions recently, but only eight were filled.
The lack of interest is beacuse of a lack of full-time positions on offer, according to Beaulieu, and the CIUSS de Laval has been unwilling to create many full-time positions to incentivize potential applicants, this despite occasions like this past weekend when there were 10 vacancies for an overnight shift of 18 nurses.
The health authority has been unavailable for comment.
Beaulieu says something has to give.
"We need stability, because no one is going to stay there."