The chief of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital is sounding the alarm that the program is at risk of closing as early as next January because of a severe shortage of perfusionists, the professionals who run the heart-lung machines necessary for triple bypasses.
The cardiac surgery program at the Côte-des-Neiges hospital is already running 20 to 40 per cent below volume because there are only three perfusionists on staff instead of the required seven. As a result, wait times have lengthened in the past three years — despite the perfusionists working overtime — and some patients have died at home before they get the call to go to hospital.
Making matters worse, two of the three perfusionists on staff are expected to retire in January. If the Jewish General is unable to recruit replacements, the hospital may have no choice but to close the program. The odds of that happening are high, given that there is a province-wide scarcity of perfusionists.
“We’re just not able to recruit because there are no perfusionists who are available,” Dr. Emmanuel Moss, head of the division of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General, told The Gazette.
“I mean, almost every hospital in Quebec has some shortages, and we’re not training any right now. We’re supposed to have two students on bursaries, but they’re not getting trained right now, partially because of the pressure tactics by perfusionists who are trying to get better wages.”
“We have no saviour in sight for our perfusionists, and obviously it puts our program at risk,” Moss added. “We’re at risk of a rupture in service if we lose those perfusionists and they actually leave and if we don’t get any other help, then we can’t do heart surgery at the Jewish General anymore.”
Hospital administrators have been pleading for help from the government, but no action has been taken to date to fix the crisis.
“I think they’ve realized in the last few months just how bad this is across Quebec, but at the same time they haven’t quite gotten into crisis mode to really make sure this gets solved before things get even worse,” Moss continued.
Jewish General hires nurse coordinator
The Jewish General has relied on donations from the hospital foundation to hire a nurse coordinator for the cardiac surgery program because the government hasn’t made permanent funding available for that position.
“Part of the nurse coordinator’s job is to follow up on the wait lists and call patients to make sure they’re not getting worse before their surgery,” Moss explained. “But if we had the resources, then this nurse could focus her time on doing other things and helping other parts of the system and managing patients post-operatively rather than worrying about the patients who are at home not getting their surgery.”
Still, despite the nurse coordinator’s follow-up calls with patients at home, some have ended up dying suddenly before their scheduled surgery.
“Unfortunately despite our best efforts, we have lost patients on the wait list,” Moss confirmed.
Dr. Louis Perrault, president of the Association des chirurgiens cardio-vasculaires et thoraciques du Québec, noted that five patients in need of heart surgery at the Institut de cardiologie de Montréal died last year while on the wait list.
On Tuesday, Perrault denounced Santé Québec, the state corporation responsible for managing the province’s health system, for “minimizing” the death toll among heart patients on wait lists. Santé Québec is also being accused of gaslighting the public by posting on its website incomplete statistics that show wait lists have dropped dramatically.
In a statement posted on X that day, Santé Québec suggested that “it is possible for a person to die while waiting for surgery for reasons that are not necessarily related to the heart surgery itself. The medical reality is complex and can never be attributed to a single factor.”
Les listes d’attente en chirurgie cardiaque au Québec sont gérées avec rigueur et selon l’état de santé des personnes en attente. Les cas urgents sont opérés sans délai. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3IZ6sM352m
— Santé Québec (@sante_qc) March 31, 2026
Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, president and chief executive officer of Montreal’s centre-west health authority overseeing the Jewish General, insisted the cardiac surgery program will not close. But at the same time, he acknowledged that “there are just not enough” perfusionists.
At present, there are 65 perfusionists across Quebec, down from 70 last year. Ideally, the province needs 90, estimated Perrault, director of the perfusion program at the Université de Montréal.
Santé Québec blamed for crisis
Yannick Pinard, president of the Association des perfusionnistes cliniques du Québec, accused Santé Québec of exacerbating the crisis.
“Since Santé Québec came in last year, it’s way worse,” Pinard said.
“To give you an example, before Santé Québec started running things, before a new grad would start working at a hospital, they could reach an agreement with HR to be paid at a higher salary scale, not just at the first level. So that would correct things a little bit. But now the hospitals can’t do that anymore because of Santé Québec, and the perfusionists make $15 an hour less.”
As a consequence, at least half of Quebec’s graduating perfusionists start their careers in other provinces or the United States. The maximum hourly wage in Quebec for a perfusionist is $56, while the starting wages elsewhere are $65 and can rise as high as $85.
In a statement, Santé Québec defended its handling of the shortage of perfusionists, pointing out it has set up a committee to look into the problem.
When a patient gets cancelled … they feel let down by the system. They feel abandoned.
Emannuel Moss
Head of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital
“Santé Québec is aware of the specific situation affecting perfusionists and is concerned about the recruitment and retention challenges associated with this job category. A working committee has been created to identify, in the short term, sustainable solutions to the shortage.”
“Among the potential actions are increasing admissions to the extracorporeal perfusion training program, expanding internship capacity, promoting the profession more widely, and introducing various work‑organization measures to ensure full use of their competencies — all with the goal of improving the attraction and retention of graduates,” spokesperson Lisa Fiset added in an email.
Moreover, “several bonuses provided for in the collective agreements … already apply to perfusionists.”
In the meantime, heart surgeons like Moss will have to continue with one of the hardest parts of their job: breaking the news to patients that their surgery has been put off — again.
“When a patient gets cancelled, they’re understanding. They’re not upset with me. But they feel let down by the system. They feel abandoned.”
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