MONTREAL -- Quebec minister responsible for Montreal Chantal Rouleau announced Monday that a new centre specializing in chronic diseases is now open in Montreal.
It will be a multidisciplinary establishment to meet the needs of the province's ageing population.
"The Jean-Jacques-Gauthier centre aims to better meet the multiple needs of our citizens living with chronic diseases," said Health Minister Christian Dubé in a news release. "I would like to salute the creators of this initiative, which allows the teams to combine their respective expertise in prevention, health promotion and chronic disease management. The creation of this centre is part of a concrete approach to the development and optimization of our front-line care and services."
Rouleau is the Minister responsible for Montreal and made the announcement on behalf of Dubé.
Montreal North Health and Social Services Centre CEO Frédéric Abergel accompanied Rouleau. The centre was inaugurated following construction and renovation work at the former Louvain long-term care centre at 9600 Saint-Denis St. in Montreal North.
NURSES CRITICIZE LACK OF COLLABORATION
Monday's news conference comes as the nursing and cardio-respiratory care personnel union is calling out the government for a "lack of collaboration to agree on solutions that could improve working conditions" and deal with the major staffing shortage crisis that has led to the province cutting hours in two hospitals' emergency rooms in Lachine and Senneterre.
The union says the meetings in the working committee to find solutions are going one way with the union proposing solutions without response from the ministry.
"They were proposing solutions without coercive, disqualifying and inequitable measures for members," a news release from the union reads. "However, the exercise of the last few days was truncated and obscured our willingness to find such solutions."
The union says Dubé and his ministry has kept the union out of discussions, and that "he has preferred coercion, division and threats, rather than engaging in the legitimate process of consultation to achieve his objectives."
The union listed in the release a selection of the ministry's 155 decrees since the province's health care emergency declaration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the union argues has not produced positive results.
"Many of the measures are also in direct contradiction with the new labour contract," the release reads. "A collaborative effort in the implementation of these measures could have prevented them from being received rather coldly in the field."
