Quebec nurses' union launches hotline for complaints about health care system
Health care workers will collect complaints from the public
A new hotline that allows Quebecers to complain anonymously about issues in the health care system was launched today by the union representing heath care workers.
The Fédération Interprofessionnelle de la Santé du Quebec (FIQ), which represents 45,000 nurses in the province, wants to highlight stories of health care system woes by bringing them to the media and compiling stats to present to the health ministry.
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The union says cuts to the health care system in recent years have made it increasingly unsafe, and health care workers who speak out about problems in the system are being reprimanded.
"They get sanctioned, some of them get suspended, some get fired as well. There's like this law that if you work in the healthcare profession, you can never speak out," said FIQ treasurer Roberto Bomba.
Bomba says the union is turning to the public to help improve the health care system by setting up the hotline, which can be reached by dialing 1-844-FIQ-AIDE.
There will also be an area on the union's website where people can leave their complaints.
The hotline will run 24-hours-a-day for three weeks. Between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., health care professionals, who are also union representatives, will be taking calls.
Between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m., callers will be able to leave a voicemail message.
Bomba says the team is expecting to be inundated with calls.
Health minister says hotline could cause 'panic'
Health Minister Gaétan Barrette dismissed the creation of the hotline as a "negotiation tactic."
"It's quite self-serving," said Barrette. "It's not necessarily to the benefit of anybody... At the end of that process, people will be worried. It will induce a kind of discomfort and even panic."
He says problems in the health care system should be dealt with internally or through existing impartial parties.