Gabrielle Cassagnes Lemoine
The leader of the Green Party of Quebec, Alex Tyrrell, spoke this Friday in Montreal in front of the Lakeshore General Hospital, to take a stand on an issue that is important to the PVQ, namely the whole situation related to our healthcare system. Over the past 8 years, the disastrous Barrette reforms and the COVID pandemic have exposed the critical situation facing the province's nurses and attendants, and the province's hospitals. Many Quebecers are worried about the state of our healthcare system, and the party shares these concerns. The Green Party of Quebec believes it's high time to recognize the problems facing healthcare professionals and take action.
Accompanied by Virginie Beaudet, candidate in Jacques-Cartier, Alex Tyrrel, leader of the party, spoke specifically about the critical situation at the Lakeshore General Hospital, whose capacity is very regularly overloaded and even reached, on a few occasions during the summer, a capacity of 180%. "The Green Party of Quebec is making a health point here at this hospital, where I and members of my family have been treated in the past. There are truly exceptional staff here, but these people don't have the resources to provide quality health care and are unable to offer what the population requires when they are overloaded or when they are on mandatory overtime;" said Alex Tyrrell in his speech.
For the Green Party of Quebec, health is a front-line issue. It is important to ensure that everyone has access to quality services. The Green Party of Quebec is proposing to relieve overcrowding in emergency rooms through walk-in clinics, and to recruit more staff. A Green government will increase the system's capacity by training and hiring more staff and improving working conditions for nurses and attendants. The PVQ also wants to increase salaries for these professions considerably, reduce shift lengths, while giving nurses greater leeway. "With all the wealth we have in Quebec, we have all the means to have a quality public healthcare system, where people can access it when they need it. We need local services, accessible services, and that's why the PVQ supports the public health system and access to care, here in the West Island, but also throughout Quebec," said Alex Tyrrell.
