THE GOVERNMENT PRIVATIZES.
PRIVATE INTERESTS PROFIT.
The public pays.

A disturbing tendency is emerging in Quebec: the public health network employers are using personnel from private healthcare employment agencies more and more. What has the Charest government done since its arrival in power to stop this tendency? Nothing. In fact, they never stop easing the regulations in order to facilitate this sub-contracting. Result: they slyly legitimize the entry of the private healthcare employment agencies in the public health network. Thus, today, the public health network is buying personnel like they buy medical or computer!

Numbers that are sounding an alarm

The number of private healthcare employment agencies, the diversification of their activities and the place they occupy today in the public health institutions is worrisome.

  • 145 private healthcare employment agencies working in Quebec (data listed in November, 2009)
  • Nearly 60% of public health institutions called upon these private agencies in 2008-2009
  • In some institutions, the personnel from these private agencies would have worked up to 40% of the total hours worked

Has the labour shortage been resolved in this way? No.

The labour shortage: the nurses as an example

The Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ) indicates that, since 2001, the nursing workforce employed in the public health institutions has been constantly decreasing. It is therefore not surprising that the number of nurses working for private healthcare employment agencies has increased by 44% since 2004-2005. Furthermore, if verifications were made, this percentage would be even higher.

The harmful effects of the shortage on care professionals

The shortage of professionals causes an impact on the care provided to the population and the working conditions. Now, the private healthcare employment agencies use this fact in a pernicious and opportunistic fashion in order to compete with the public sector by recruiting a labour force in care for which they then lease hours to the public network. 

The shortage of care professionals has become the gravy boat for the gold standard of business. They make profits on the back of the public network, which is already suffering from chronic under-financing. The primary objective of a private healthcare employment agency is to generate the most profit for its shareholders.

The bottom line is that the public does not gain from the interference of private interests in the public sector. Where is the public money earmarked for health going then?

The private sector results in exorbitant costs

The employers in the public network are spending colossal amounts of money to lease or buy care services from private agencies. This results in consequences for the employers, but also for taxpayers and for the government.

By repeatedly using the services of private healthcare employment agencies, the public network reduces its margin of manpower and has few means at its disposal to improve services to the population.

The private healthcare employment agencies are made up of for-profit companies; and as such, are not taxed in the same way as individuals according to taxation laws, because they benefit from several specific deductions.

Leaving the distribution
of care to the private sector
adversely affects public health.

Using private healthcare employment agencies threatens the quality, continuity and safety of care. Considering the high rate of turnover, the personnel from these agencies cannot develop relationships with the patients nor adequately assess their needs. In addition, the methods of hiring by telephone or by the internet by some of the private agencies means that they do not always meet the people they are sending to the institutions. Therefore, questioning the repercussions of these expeditious methods on the services offered is well-founded. Care professionals in the public sector must present their permit to practice every year.

The creation of a quasi-monopoly or a monopoly would have counter-productive repercussions on the public sector. The private agencies could demand high rates with little competition.

The privatization of care in Quebec does not benefit the population or the public network. Rather, it serves the private healthcare employment agencies because the government and the public institutions have created a market that exploits health to the benefit of profitable business.

The FIQ, an organization that defends and is at the service of care professionals

The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec – FIQ represents 58,000 nursing and cardio-respiratory care professionals in nearly 160 institutions. The FIQ defends the demands, choices and rights of its members and encourages an active union life. Lastly, it provides for the sensitization of public opinion to the professional realities of its members in order to get their attention and obtain their support.

A general trend
which weighs heavily on health.

The public health network is using private healthcare employment agencies more and more for their staff. The shortage of professionals is not being resolved by this. The public sector, which already suffers from under-financing, only suffers further the competition from the private sector.

Who profits from the privatization of care in Quebec? The patients? The public network? No. It is instead the private healthcare employment agencies because the public money intended for health finds itself in the pockets of shareholders.

The FIQ denounces this general trend that weighs on health.