The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, called on Wednesday the doctors of the province to come and fill the lack of nurses and nursing assistants in hospitals for the elderly, hard hit by the new coronavirus.
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“ Ideally, we need 2,000 doctors who come to wash the world, to feed the patients. Let them come and do the nurses' work. We will find a way to compensate them, ”said François Legault during his daily press briefing. The Premier of Quebec launched this appeal to some 20,000 physicians in the province due to the shortage of qualified personnel to " go to work as an attendant (caregiver, editor's note) or nurse " in hospital care centers. long-term care (CHSLD), the equivalent in Quebec of nursing homes in France.
The situation is considered " critical " in around 40 of these CHSLDs, where more than 15% of patients have been infected with the virus and where the deaths are counted in the tens. Police have even opened a criminal investigation for gross negligence in a private CHSLD in Montreal, where at least 31 patients died within a few weeks and whose owner has a criminal record, according to the daily La Presse. Overwhelmed and underpaid, part of the staff of several CHSLDs resigned for fear of being infected with the coronavirus.
Canada counted Wednesday afternoon more than 28,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 1,000 deaths, half of which in Quebec, the most affected province in the country. About half of the deaths across the country have been seen in similar hospitals, mainly in Quebec and Ontario, the other most affected and populated province in Canada, according to the Canadian Public Health Agency.