Doctors worried about cuts to superhospital's neonatal ICU
Provincial government wants to cut the number of neonatal specialists at new superhospital from 14 to 10
Babies in the neonatal intensive care unit are the sickest of the sick.
Some are born prematurely or with severe health problems. Some are even recovering from open heart surgery.
They require around the clock care for weeks, if not months.
When the superhospital opens, the neonatal intensive care units from the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Montreal Children's will merge to provide 52 beds.
The MUHC wanted to staff it with 14 neonatology specialists — up from the current 12.
Instead, by 2020, the government has ordered the McGill University Health Centre to cut the number of doctors from 14 positions to ten.
It's a number the MUHC says is unacceptable.
"With 52 beds and 10 people who have to cover 24/7, you can totally say right away, it's totally unrealistic," says Dr. Robert Gagnon, director of the MUHC's obstetrics department.
"It can lead to extreme fatigue and even burnout in the worst-case scenario," says Gagnon.
MUHC fighting the cuts
A spokesperson for Health Minister Gaétan Barrette referred all questions about the staffing cuts to the MUHC.
Ewa Sodorowicz, the Associate Director General of Medical Affairs and Professional Services, says the MUHC has been negotiating with the ministry for weeks to try and stop the cuts in the neonatal ICU.
They presented their case for the 14 positions to the ministry again about a month ago. The MUHC hopes to have an answer within the next few days.
Sodorowicz says there are two vacant positions for neonatal ICU doctors right now at the MUHC, but she she doesn't know if they'll ever be filled until she gets a clear answer from the province.
Families don't understand
Nathalie Bouchard's now 8-year-old son spent six months in the Children's Hospital's ICU after he was born.
Bouchard describes it as an extremely difficult time, and says staff helped them navigate those months.
"You trust one of the most precious things you have to those people," Bouchard says.
Bouchard is on the Family Advisory Forum at the Montreal Children's Hospital.
She doesn't understand how staffing could possibly be cut back.
"How would that work? I mean people are already stretched. When I was on the unit it seemed like people are already working very long hours. So how is 4 less staff going to work? How's that going to affect the patients they have? I don't understand," Bouchard says.
The Royal Victoria Hospital will be the first hospital to move to the superhospital on April 26.