Health board says it needs to fill 4,800 positions to staff new Vaudreuil-Soulanges hospital

The long-promised Vaudreuil-Soulanges hospital is set to open in 2026, but before it opens the hospital needs staff and volunteers.

A major recruitment campaign is underway.

The hospital is still under construction but patients are expected to walk through the doors in two years leaving many to wonder who will take care of them?

According to the regional health authority, more than 4,800 employees, managers, doctors and volunteers are needed.

Université de Montréal professor Regis Blais says this will be a major challenge, given the state of the health-care system and staffing shortages.

"In the end, it will be difficult to recruit new staff unless we go to other jurisdictions, provinces quite often in other countries, but recruiting 5,000 people, it will be difficult and it's not possible to clone any staff yet," Blais said.

The CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest says extraordinary measures are required to attract numerous talents and that recruitment has already begun — even internationally.

Mélanie Gignac, president of the Syndicat des professionnelles en soins de Montérégie-Ouest-FIQ, said recruiting is already a big challenge for the region. Currently, there's a shortage of approximately 1,600 employees.