Quebec hopes to train up to 5,000 new orderlies by end of 2023

Quebec hopes to recruit and train 3,000 to 5,000 people to work as orderlies in the province's health-care system in the next few months.

This latest blitz aims to address critical understaffing as an aging population increases demands on the system, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

"We're missing, as of today, 11,000 orderlies," said Dubé. "If we don't do anything new, we could [end up needing] 15,000 to 20,000.... So we need to have a path."

The orderlies, known in French as préposés aux bénéficiares, or PABs, are sorely needed to work in the province's long-term care homes and both public and private seniors' residences.

Those who apply to take an accelerated training course, scheduled to being on Aug. 7, will be eligible for an $8,000 bursary.

Once they graduate from the three-month program, the orderlies will get a $4,000 bonus and a guaranteed position.

Early in the pandemic, when health-care officials had to resort to drastic measures to provide even the most basic patient care in seniors' residences, the government launched a similar program aimed at training 10,000 new orderlies before the expected second wave of COVID-19.

Dubé said Tuesday that experience of quickly training thousands of orderlies in 2020 gives him reason to be optimistic about this newest initiative.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, 7,907 of the 10,168 orderlies hired during the pandemic were still working in the system, as of March 31, 2023.

"It was an immense success for the first shot, and we hope to have the same level of retention with this training starting this summer," said Education Minister Bernard Drainville.

Sonia Bélanger, the minister responsible for seniors, said the government is specifically seeking to hire young and retired workers.

'Cosmetic measure'

Alain Croteau, president of the union representing PABs working for the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montreal, called the plan a "cosmetic measure" on Radio-Canada's Tout un matin Tuesday. 

Croteau said it was "paradoxical" for the government to offer a hiring bonus to future orderlies while, at the bargaining table, asking those currently employed to work longer hours and offering them only a nine per cent pay increase over five years.

"The conditions are not favourable to attract and keep people in the health-care system," said Croteau, describing the recruitment drive as a "bandage on too deep a wound."