'We can't clone staff!': 4,800 staff needed for new hospital by 2026 amid staff shortage

The new Vaudroy-Solange hospital, which will open its doors in 2026, must hire 4,800 new employees, an enormous challenge that is almost “magical thinking” in the context of staffing shortages, according to many experts.

“We can't clone employees. Unless the minister pulls out a new magic wand that will create employees,” said Regis Bliss, a professor of management at the University of Montreal's faculty of public health.

“It's a kind of magical thinking. There's no simple solution.

Expected hospital

The new Vaudreuil-Dorion Hospital, which has been in demand for several years, is scheduled to receive its first patients at the end of 2026. Construction work is already well underway. In total, the Center for Integrated Health and Social Services of Montérégie-Ouest (CISSS) will need 4,800 new employees (doctors, managers, volunteers, etc.).

New Vaudroy-Solange Hospital:

• 404 beds
• Emergency 41 stretchers
• An operating room that includes 11 operating rooms
• 4800 employees
• Cost: $2.6 billion
• Scheduled opening: end of 2026

^{Source: CISSSMO}

Sismo

“Extraordinary means are needed to attract a lot of talent,” we read on the website of the new hospital.

Moreover, recruitment has already begun internally and internationally, CISSS responds via email.

“It's utopian,” says Melanie Gignac, president of the nurses' union FIQ of Monteregie-Ouest. Where will we find the world? I have never experienced such a major staff shortage in my entire life.

In fact, there is currently a shortage of 1,750 employees (all positions combined), CISSS notes. The needs are particularly acute in the Chateauguay and Salbery-de-Valleyfield hospitals.

According to many, the allure of a brand-new hospital threatens to exacerbate the shortage of these less modern hospitals.

“In Suroît, it's so old, we don't even have digital files!”, confirms M.^I Gignac.

Hospital staff on the island west of Montreal, such as in Pointe-Claire, could also be tempted to relocate.

“We will strip the island.”

“This worries me a lot,” confirms Tasmin Ismail, representative of the APTS union in Montérégie Ouest, which combines several types of jobs. “We will strip the island, and we will have to find other ways.”

“Either we have to take off Paul's clothes to put on Pierre's clothes or many services will not be open,” Mr. Bliss sums up.

Photo courtesy of Regis Place

Hiring international employees is an interesting solution, but you still have to be able to find housing for them, many say.

The end of the use of private agencies next October will put pressure on hospitals. According to these two unions affiliated with the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest, very few private sector employees have moved to the public sector.

Moreover, the rigidity of health training rules must be relaxed, according to Jean-Claude Bernatchez, a professor of labor relations at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières.

“We have to organize the system so it works. We need to assess people's potential and put them on accelerated training programmes,” he says.