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.<\/p>\n
The cardiac surgery program at the C\u00f4te-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 \u2014 despite the perfusionists working overtime \u2014 and some patients have died at home before they get the call to go to hospital.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just not able to recruit because there are no perfusionists who are available,\u201d Dr. Emmanuel Moss, head of the division of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General, told The Gazette.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, almost every hospital in Quebec has some shortages, and we\u2019re not training any right now. We\u2019re supposed to have two students on bursaries, but they\u2019re not getting trained right now, partially because of the pressure tactics by perfusionists who are trying to get better wages.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no saviour in sight for our perfusionists, and obviously it puts our program at risk,\u201d Moss added. \u201cWe\u2019re at risk of a rupture in service if we lose those perfusionists and they actually leave and if we don\u2019t get any other help, then we can\u2019t do heart surgery at the Jewish General anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hospital administrators have been pleading for help from the government, but no action has been taken to date to fix the crisis. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019ve realized in the last few months just how bad this is across Quebec, but at the same time they haven\u2019t quite gotten into crisis mode to really make sure this gets solved before things get even worse,\u201d Moss continued.<\/p>\n
\t\tJewish General hires nurse coordinator\t<\/p>\n
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\u2019t made permanent funding available for that position.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the nurse coordinator\u2019s job is to follow up on the wait lists and call patients to make sure they\u2019re not getting worse before their surgery,\u201d Moss explained. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, despite the nurse coordinator\u2019s follow-up calls with patients at home, some have ended up dying suddenly before their scheduled surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately despite our best efforts, we have lost patients on the wait list,\u201d Moss confirmed.<\/p>\n
Dr. Louis Perrault, president of the Association des chirurgiens cardio-vasculaires et thoraciques du Qu\u00e9bec, noted that five patients in need of heart surgery at the Institut de cardiologie de Montr\u00e9al died last year while on the wait list.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Perrault denounced Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec<\/a>, the state corporation responsible for managing the province\u2019s health system, for \u201cminimizing\u201d the death toll among heart patients on wait lists. Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec is also being accused of gaslighting the public<\/a> by posting on its website incomplete statistics that show wait lists have dropped dramatically.<\/p>\n In a statement posted on X that day, Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec suggested that \u201cit 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Les listes d\u2019attente en chirurgie cardiaque au Qu\u00e9bec sont g\u00e9r\u00e9es avec rigueur et selon l\u2019\u00e9tat de sant\u00e9 des personnes en attente. Les cas urgents sont op\u00e9r\u00e9s sans d\u00e9lai. \u2b07\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/3IZ6sM352m<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec (@sante_qc) March 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, president and chief executive officer of Montreal\u2019s centre-west health authority overseeing the Jewish General, insisted the cardiac surgery program will not close. But at the same time, he acknowledged that \u201cthere are just not enough\u201d perfusionists.<\/p>\n 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 Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n \t\tSant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec blamed for crisis\t<\/p>\n Yannick Pinard, president of the Association des perfusionnistes cliniques du Qu\u00e9bec, accused Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec of exacerbating the crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cSince Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec came in last year, it\u2019s way worse,\u201d Pinard said. <\/p>\n \u201cTo give you an example, before Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec 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\u2019t do that anymore because of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, and the perfusionists make $15 an hour less.\u201d<\/p>\n As a consequence, at least half of Quebec\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n In a statement, Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec defended its handling of the shortage of perfusionists, pointing out it has set up a committee to look into the problem.<\/p>\n When a patient gets cancelled \u2026 they feel let down by the system. They feel abandoned.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmannuel Moss \u201cSant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAmong the potential actions are increasing admissions to the extracorporeal perfusion training program, expanding internship capacity, promoting the profession more widely, and introducing various work\u2011organization measures to ensure full use of their competencies \u2014 all with the goal of improving the attraction and retention of graduates,\u201d spokesperson Lisa Fiset added in an email.<\/p>\n Moreover, \u201cseveral bonuses provided for in the collective agreements \u2026 already apply to perfusionists.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 again.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a patient gets cancelled, they\u2019re understanding. They\u2019re not upset with me. But they feel let down by the system. They feel abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n aderfel@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n x.com\/Aaron_Derfel<\/a><\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n \t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHead of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital<\/p>\n