Union blames ‘hyper-centralized’ bureaucracy, budget cuts for CHSLD disaster

A withering government report on how a long-term care centre (CHSLD) in Laval became a COVID-19 hot zone last spring is proof Quebec needs to rethink its health-care bureaucracy and staffing levels, the union representing health care workers said on Thursday.

In a statement, the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN) said the report on how the virus slowly but surely took its toll on staff and residents at the CHSLD Ste-Dorothée “shows the scale of the management mistakes made during the first wave of the pandemic.”

The union said the report also highlighted complaints it had been making for months, including staff shortages, testing delays and a lack of equipment.

“In reading the report we can see at what point the workers at the CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée were left on their own to face one of the worst outbreaks in Quebec,” said Marjolaine Aubé, president of the union representing health-care workers in Laval.