Prioritizing

A shortage of anesthesiologists at the Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe Claire is either mismanagement or a pressure tactic designed to shame the government into paying more for its pain-management specialists.

West Island Health and Social Services Centre director Suzanne Turmel says it’s the latter, but during the lead-up to a recent retirement, the hospital should have seen this one coming.

On one hand, anesthesiologists are hard to find in Quebec these days, and on the other, is the government, an organization that has had, let’s say, credibility issues over the years.

Health network director Turmel is quoted as saying “if (anesthesiologists) cared about the hospital, they would cover every shift.”

Well, those of us at The Chronicle who work here care about the paper, but we’re not going to work 24 hours a day to prove it.

As it stands right now, it looks as though the LGH is in a situation that is part of a flawed system. Anesthesiologists work not only at the Lakeshore, they also work shifts at other island hospitals.

The specialists are paid by the job, so it makes more sense for them to spend more time at high-volume birthing hospitals like LaSalle and St. Mary’s and less time at the LGH. The Lakeshore General Hospital’s relatively low number of births and surgeries make it less profitable for anesthesiologists.

Turmel can hardly expect such specialists to purposely take salary cuts by working at the LGH out of a sense of loyalty — their only loyalty should lie with themselves and with their families.

If Turmel could take a job tomorrow with another hospital for more money, we would hardly be right in criticizing her. These aren’t pro athletes making $6 million every year; they’re working people whose skills are in demand and rightfully so; their level of education is high when measured against the average Quebecer. Their salary is also higher, but certainly not obscene given the amount of training they undergo and the delicate nature of their chosen trade.

Turmel should lay off the doctors’ reasons for not covering as many shifts as she would like; rather, she should go about correcting the problems that led to the shortage. After all, that’s an administrator’s job: it’s the one she’s paid to do.

Now if only the government could actually live up to repeated promises of making health care its top priority. Imagine, if health care was not a priority for the Quebec government - and how much worse it could become.