The Quebec government on Monday launched a tender seeking the award of more than eight million hours of work a year for nurses and auxiliaries, those famous employees who are tasked with facilitating nurses’ administrative tasks.

With this, Québec aims to fill working hours in all regions of Québec with tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of hours per year, depending on the region.

The contracts awarded to the agencies have a duration of six months, but the call for tender includes three renewal options with the same duration, so it is actually two years. With a rough calculation based on 35 hours per week over 52 weeks, this corresponds to just over 4,600 full-time positions.

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Another order has already been placed

Also this fall, similar contracts have been awarded to agencies for occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers, respiratory therapists and other jobs related to those professions for nearly a million hours a year. In the latter case we are talking about a total of almost 855,000 hours per year spread across all regions, again for a potential duration of two years.

In the latter case, since the contracts are already taken, we know their value and it’s $60 million per half year, for a total of $240 million for the full 24 month term. Using the same summary calculation basis as above, we are talking here about the equivalent of 470 full-time positions. On the nursing side, because the contracts have not yet been awarded, we don’t know their value, but since the quantified need is similar to last year, we can expect more than $750 million, last year’s total, all items combined and reached $875 million.

Dubé: a law after the fact?

These contracts arise during the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, has been repeating in all tones for months that he is trying to free himself from agencies. In an interview with the Journal de Montreal on Tuesday, he even said he was considering a bill to regulate the use of agencies, a bill that could be tabled as early as the next parliamentary session in January.

The idea of ​​a bill to regulate a practice already governed by contractual obligations is leaving the Quebec Interprofessional Health Association (FIQ) confused. In an interview with The Canadian Press, its vice-president Françoise Ramel has trouble following the minister’s speech: “Obviously we are surprised because he speaks with both sides of his mouth. On the one hand he talks about making an invoice against the free work, on the other hand he makes a tender with so many hours.

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The crisis in all of Quebec’s healthcare facilities, all of which are suffering from staff shortages, leaves her little choice, she readily admits: “We are also aware that we cannot eradicate the call for freelance work overnight. It has to be progressive.”

TSO also for agencies

“Obviously it’s a huge network dependency. We really need these employees now, but where are they going to find them?” asks Françoise Ramel. However, she is pleased with the terms of the tender, which obliges temporary workers to work overtime if the companies ask them to do so.

Also, agencies are barred from hiring an employee who left the network less than a year ago: “What is also good about this bid is that it covers the mandatory overtime for agencies and the time before reinstatement of a person who she leaves, better framed the network. It could help curb staff bleeding. Except that unless better working conditions, recruitment and retention of employees are created, we won’t bring the staff back like this.

It is clear that these private agency recruitments, which are far from declining, risk being at the center of a negotiation that promises to be difficult, since the positions of Quebec and the unions are very far apart .

Data by region

Non-nursing staff: Montérégie at the top

The awarding of contracts for non-nursing staff (occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers) last autumn shows where the shortage of staff is greatest and therefore holds some surprises. Not Montreal, which takes second place with more than 178,000 hours worked by agencies (over a year, like all the figures below), but Montérégie with more than 280,600 hours.

In the regions: Abitibi and Mauricie in lack

At regional level, the breakdown of these contracts shows that Abitibi-Témiscamingue is by far the most urgent need, ranking third behind Montreal despite a limited population with a grant of 92,000 hours. Next is Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec, where private agencies work nearly 72,000 hours, and Lanaudière with more than 67,000 hours.

Outaouais and Estrie in good shape

Conversely, the contracts show that the needs appear minimal in Outaouais (680 hours granted over a year) and in Estrie (879 hours) and very modest in the regions of Laval (8308 hours), Laurentides (8523 hours) and Gaspésie-Îles- de la Madeleine (9500).

It should be noted that the shortage of social workers and social workers, who in several regions monopolize almost half and sometimes more than half of the hours given to private agencies, seems extremely serious.

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Medical supplies

The Canadian Press identified the most glaring need at over 100,000 hours per year in the tendering process for nursing and care services, which is still in the tendering process and therefore less accurate.

Montreal: great need

Unsurprisingly, then, we find that in Montreal, the Center-Sud and North Island CIUSSSs combined require 405,000 hours for nurses and 480,000 hours for nurses. If we add the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île, we see the need for more than 780,000 hours of auxiliaries, these famous tools to reduce the administrative burden of nurses.

Montérégie, Laurentides and Côte-Nord in trouble

Montérégie remains number one in terms of eligible nurses with a need of 738,800 hours in the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest alone. The CISSS de la Montérégie Center needs nurses for 120,000 hours. For its part, the CISSS des Laurentides is looking to fill nearly 560,000 nursing hours and more than 236,000 nursing hours, and the North Shore is offering 322,000 nursing hours.

Major needs in Quebec, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Laval

For its part, the Capitale-Nationale offers 200,000 hours for employees and 100,000 hours for auxiliary staff. The Bas-Saint-Laurent requires 190,000 hours of nurses and 175,000 hours of orderlies. Finally, Laval offers just over 125,000 hours for nurses.