30 of 250 MDs secured so far BRENDA O’FARRELLThe 1019 Report – Local Journalism Initiative The new Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital will open its doors in the summer of 2028 with less than half of its needed staff hired, according to a spokesperson with Santé Québec Montérégie-Ouest. And so far, only 30 doctors of the 250 required have been contracted. “On the medical side, 12 per cent of the required physicians have already been hired,” said Anick Drouin, a ministerial and media relations officer with the regional health authority, in response to questions from The 1019 Report. Although an opening date for the hospital has been set for the summer of 2028, the regional health authority did not provide a date when full staffing is expected to be reached. “The recruitment goal is to have 40 per cent of positions filled by the end of the first year of operation,” Drouin said, referring to all job categories, which include medical and non-medical positions. The level of staffing is a serious concern for municipal leaders and business officials in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area, and is just part of a wider manpower crisis looming for the region. Describing the situation as “very unhelpful” and “disappointing,” the president of the region’s business development agency said the hiring challenge the hospital is facing is just part of the manpower crunch brewing in the region. “We are expecting a major manpower crisis when the hospital opens,” said Danie Deschênes, president of Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges and mayor of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot. In February, DEV along with several business owners, publicly called on Santé-Québec to share its hiring plan for the hospital, with Deschênes urging health officials: “Show us your strategy for the hospital.” On Saturday, Deschênes told The 1019 Report Santé-Québec has so far not shared its plan. “What they tell us is that the hiring is going as planned,” Deschênes said in an interview. The Vaudreuil hospital is the first new hospital to be built in Quebec in approximately 30 years that adds beds to the health network, a system that has faced chronic understaffing for years. Just last week, provincial health officials announced the temporary closure of the maternity ward at Hôpital Saint-Eustache due to a shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists. In July, the president of the Quebec Association of Specialists in Emergency Medicine of Quebec issued a warning, as several Montreal-area hospitals experienced serious emergency ward overcapacity levels, highlighting the cause being a combination of higher volumes of patients due to the heat wave and staffing shortages. The new Vaudreuil hospital, which will have 404 beds, 11 surgical suits, an emergency room and a maternity unit, will employ 3,500 people. Of that number, only about 20 per cent — 761 have been opened to applications, Drouin said. And only some of them have been filled in the last two years. “As of June 2024, 761 positions had been posted (almost exclusively clinical roles for 24/7 sectors); 519 were filled, while 242 remained vacant following the posting period,” she stated in an email. “Currently, 842 positions are posted internally,” Drouin said, adding: “Unfilled positions will be posted externally and supported by a recruitment campaign.” Santé-Québec has 16 open employment offers posted online at the moment aiming to fill a wide range of positions linked to the new hospital, including the director of emergency services, pharmacists, nurses, pharmacy technicians and physiotherapists. None of the job postings require English language skills. Online portals are also open to receive inquiries from doctors. As the opening of the hospital gets closer, Deschênes said hiring for non-medical staff threatens to drain workers from area businesses, which are already facing a manpower shortage. That is why DEV is doubling down on its demand that the provincial and federal government give Vaudreuil-Soulanges a special status that would allow it to increase the hiring of foreign workers. Last Februray, DEV made the call for what it called a “territorial exemption” that would exempt employers in the region from changes to immigration policies to ensure against the loss of temporary foreign workers. Faced with mounting opposition to the announced end to its Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ), which allowed workers to be fast-tracked to obtaining residency status, the provincial government temporarily re-instated the program for two years beginning this past July. Deschênes says this region requires a better solution, and said the hospital’s need of thousands of workers, many for non-medical jobs, “will empty our business.” You are unauthorized to view this page.
