The Quebec government is expanding the bonus offered to medical imaging technologists in Outaouais, in order to curb their exodus to Ontario. It grants an annual lump sum of $22,000 to technologists at the Papineau Hospital, in Gatineau, and a sum of $18,000 to those at the Maniwaki Hospital.
The Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS) has entered into an agreement with Quebec to increase the remuneration of medical imaging technologists in other sectors of Outaouais.
Since the end of April, only medical imaging technologists at Hull and Gatineau hospitals have benefited from the annual flat rate of $22,000 offered by Quebec. A salary “inequity”, according to the APTS, which pushed professionals to leave their position in Papineau or Maniwaki hospitals to join the ranks of hospital centers in Hull or Gatineau.
“It shifted the problem,” says Christine Prégent, national representative of the APTS in Outaouais. Five technologists from Papineau – out of 12 – and one from Maniwaki [recently] obtained a position in Hull or Gatineau,” she says.
The Papineau hospital is located about twenty kilometers from the Gatineau hospital. The Maniwaki establishment is further away from urban centers.
In addition to the lump sum, medical imaging technologists at the four hospitals will receive a 10% summer bonus. However, they will have to work more, 37.5 hours per week rather than 35.
Thanks to this two-year agreement, a technologist at the top of the salary scale in Outaouais will earn approximately the same salary as his counterpart in Ontario, or approximately $94,000, calculates the APTS.
The union deplores that these measures do not apply to technologists at the Pontiac Hospital in Shawville and the Wakefield Memorial Hospital. He fears a personnel movement.
Faced with a serious labor shortage, the CISSS de l’Outaouais published a call for tenders on Friday to recruit medical imaging technologists and medical technologists from private personnel placement agencies.
The health establishment explains that the situation is “critical in several medical services” in the region “particularly in the medical imaging sector and laboratories”. “Occupancy rates for these positions are far from optimal, with only less than 56% of these positions filled for imaging technologists and less than 75% for laboratory technologists,” one wrote in an email .
According to the CISSS, recent bonuses to hospitals in Hull and Gatineau made it possible to obtain new applications, “which allowed us to fill certain shifts.” “However, the situation remains precarious, so it is to ensure safe coverage of shifts that we call on independent labor,” we continue. The establishment reminds that laboratory technologists do not benefit from Quebec’s measures.