Home » Health » Care staff at Fleurimont Hospital severely affected by the COVID outbreak

Care staff at Fleurimont Hospital severely affected by the COVID outbreak

The screening as such which was added to the ministerial decree, there was no reaction from our members. Where there was a reaction, really, was to suggest that the staff, including our job category, could have contaminated the patients., deplores Sophie Séguin, the president of the Syndicate.

She thus denounces the public release of doctors from the hospital last week. It was inappropriate for us and it was not adequate for us to be able to come and target the care staff who were taking care of the patients.

It was taken very badly, because no one of our members gets up in the morning to infect a patient. Everyone is very careful, we worked during very difficult conditions during COVID. We have individual protection measures to ensure infection prevention practices.

A quote from:Sophie Séguin, President of the Union of Healthcare Professionals of the Eastern Townships

COVID is an invisible virus. We don’t know where it comes from, we don’t know who is a vector, who can give what, she adds.

A difficult working climate

The outbreak that is the cause of sixteen cases of COVID in patients and seven in workers has been lifted since Monday. The virus is therefore under control, but the work climate is still suffering, according to Sophie Séguin.

Since last week, we have made numerous interventions with general management. I myself had a discussion with the CEO, interventions were made immediately to staff members […]. Support was also provided, because it was taken hard. We still have to discuss with the employees, to ensure that they can recover from this unfortunate event.

Ms. Séguin, however, wants to be reassuring. She recalls that even if the vaccine is not compulsory for health personnel, screening is in certain sectors, and workers comply with it.

In an email to Radio-Canada, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) said to encourage all members of the health community (employees, doctors, managers, etc.) to be vaccinated. In this sense, several awareness-raising measures have been put in place to remind people of the importance of vaccination in health establishments.

At the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS, 100 health workers are subject to mandatory screening three times a week because they are not vaccinated.

The ministry also recalls that infection prevention and control measures are already in place in all establishments in the health network.

With information from Pierrick Pichette and Brigitte Marcoux

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.