The Parti Québécois (PQ) has pledged to increase funding for the province's long-term care homes (CHSLDs) by $500 million per year to make them the "true gateway" to the health-care network, particularly in rural areas.

PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wants a "strong" front line by involving all health professionals without making everything rely on doctors.

"Under the CAQ, the CLSC model has been undermined," he said in a press briefing Sunday morning in Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

Rural areas of the region have been unable to maintain their CLSC services," said St-Pierre Plamondon. "We close or partially close the CLSCs and then introduce the private sector as a solution."

St-Pierre Plamondon criticized the CAQ government for an increased use of private agencies.

Alongside him, his candidate in Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue, Jean-François Vachon, said that CLSCs are rallying points in rural communities where nurses play an important role with children in school or seniors with home care.

"That's really what we need, services in rural areas," said Vachon. "It will help seniors avoid having to travel 30 km to Rouyn-Noranda for a blood test. It seems like nothing, but it's far. No one in Montreal would agree to travel 30 km."

The additional investment that a PQ government would make will be used to give CLSCs more autonomy and resources.

SPECIAL STATUS

The sovereigntist party is also committed to giving special status to the regions of Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Northern Quebec in terms of health.

They are both places that have experienced service disruptions due to a lack of staff.

The hospital in La Sarre, in Abitibi-Ouest, has already been forced to close its obstetrics service, said Ungava PQ candidate Christine Moore.

"Women were told: you have to go give birth an hour and a half from home, and I am one who had to leave in the middle of a snowstorm in April to give birth in Rouyn-Noranda," said Moore, a nurse clinician who collaborated on the PQ health plan.

"The special status, called for by many, would give more money to introduce weekend or distance bonuses, for example, incentives for staff retention, as well as a different approach to negotiating collective agreements based on the reality of these regions," said St-Pierre Plamondon.

At the same time, he reiterated his commitments to promote workforce retention throughout the health care network: abolish mandatory overtime, adopt a law defining safe care/patient ratios, deploy a campaign to promote health care professions in order to increase the cohorts in educational institutions and promote nursing expertise.

The PQ leader also wants to put an end to the use of private employment agencies in order to reinvest these sums, which have reached $1 billion, in the public network.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 11, 2022.