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The maternity ward at the Saint-Eustache Hospital in Quebec’s Laurentians region is closed Sunday and Monday due to a lack of doctors.<\/p>\n
The ward oversees 1,400 births every year, but only three of the eight full-time obstetrician positions are filled at the hospital, forcing it to slow down operations.<\/p>\n
“It’s like closing an emergency room,” said Dr. Isabelle Lambert, who stepped down this week as head of the department to denounce the situation and focus on clinical work.<\/p>\n
This is the second time staff shortages have forced the ward to close since mid-August. <\/p>\n
This time, the ward will reopen at 8 a.m. on Nov. 18, but will close again from Nov. 23 until the morning of Nov. 25. <\/p>\n
Lambert says shortages are being felt across the province and are consequences of decisions taken years ago.<\/p>\n
“Resident positions have been reduced over several years, which means there are fewer graduates 10 years later,” she told Radio-Canada.<\/p>\n
Even if the government increases the number of resident positions today, it would still take a decade before those doctors started working in hospitals, she said. <\/p>\n
In the meantime, Quebec’s medical specialists are aging and retiring at a time when advances in women’s health have meant more diagnoses and cases to follow. This, combined with an increase in high-risk pregnancies, has also made it so the impact of the doctor shortage is felt even more at the hospital, explains Lambert.<\/p>\n
For her part, she’s choosing to leave her administrative-heavy job to return to clinical work at the Saint-Eustache Hospital \u2014 a decision motivated by “simple mathematics.”<\/p>\n
“We work really hard, we want it to work out even though we’re not enough gynecologists in the Laurentians to cover the demand,” Lambert said.<\/p>\n
It’s a problem the hospital has been signaling for at least six years and is not the product of Quebec’s health reforms, though that also doesn’t help, adds Lambert. In recent weeks, the province has seen an exodus of doctors<\/a> in reaction to changes to their remuneration.<\/p>\n On its website, the Saint-Eustache Hospital recommends that pregnant women call the birthing unit to be directed to “the best alternative according to their situation.” Notably, patients will be redirected to hospitals in Laval and Saint-J\u00e9r\u00f4me.<\/p>\n