Still struggling with a staff shortage, the new Family Birth Unit at Notre-Dame Hospital is extending its closure and stopping taking on new families in its obstetrics clinic. The CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal is awaiting the support of an external consultant from the Ministry of Health to resolve the impasse, it has been learned The Press.
Published at 2:18 a.m. Updated at 5:00 a.m.
The story so far
- 2017: Start of the gestation of the Family Birth Unit (UFN) project at Notre-Dame Hospital
- 2020: The opening of the unit is postponed three times, to spring 2020, spring 2023 and fall 2023.
- February 2024: Opening of the unit
- June 2024: The unit announces that it is suspending operations until at least September.
- September 2024: The unit postpones its reopening to an undetermined date and calls on an external consultant from the MSSS.
The reopening of the unit, which had been closed since June due to staff shortages, was scheduled for September. This will not be the case. “For the moment, we unfortunately cannot give a specific reopening date for the Family Birth Unit at Notre-Dame Hospital,” says CIUSSS media relations advisor Marianne Paquette.
There are still 17 open positions, 7 during the day and 10 at night. The same number of positions were available last June when the unit closed. “We will continue our recruitment efforts,” assures Ms. Paquette.
The Family Birth Unit opened last February, almost four years later than planned. Its opening had been postponed three times due to delays in the completion of the work and the difficulty in recruiting staff.
From the moment the unit opened, recruiting staff proved difficult, especially for evening and weekend shifts. The unit nearly closed down three times due to a shortage of nurses.
Then, in June, staff shortages, reduced availability of pediatricians and the arrival of the holiday season forced the unit to suspend its activities for the summer.
The unit remains closed in order to ensure “the quality of care, the safety of families and the well-being of staff,” states the CIUSSS.
Nurses ‘dismayed’
“This is poor management. We opened a unit without having the staff. It’s been going around in circles for months,” laments the president of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal workers’ union, Alain Croteau, who represents the orderlies.
This situation is “far from surprising,” says the vice-president of labour relations and negotiations for the union of health care professionals of the Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Vinh Tran, who represents the perinatal nurses in the unit.
From the moment it opened, the Family Birth Unit at Notre-Dame Hospital was fully aware of the critical lack of healthcare professionals.
Vinh Tran, vice-president of labour relations and negotiations for the union of health care professionals of the Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
“It was clear that the use of independent labour and overtime would be inevitable to maintain services,” he laments.
The union assures that perinatal nurses “are dismayed by this situation”. “The solution cannot be limited to one-off interventions by external experts.”
The union is calling on the government to commit to resolving the problem, in particular by urgently reviewing the organisation of work and the working conditions of employees.
An external consultant called
Several discussions with the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) have taken place, says Ms. Paquette. “We are expecting support from an external consultant from the ministry in the coming days to help us find solutions and analyze all possible scenarios,” she says.
The teams and unions were met on this subject. The families were also informed of the situation. They will agree on their new birth plan during their next appointment with their doctor. The obstetrics clinic, for its part, will continue to support families for their pregnancy monitoring, but will not take any new requests for the time being.
The unit’s nurses and orderlies are currently continuing their practice in other delivery centres, notably at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and the CHUM.
The unit was supposed to handle 1,500 deliveries a year, or about 125 a month. Since it opened in February, only 44 babies have been born there.
Learn more
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24.7 million Cost of building the new maternity unit
Source: CIUSSS of the South-Central Island of Montreal
