February 18, 2014

Trois-Rivières, February 18, 2014 – This morning, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) officially launched the startup of new healthcare and health service models that will offer the public neighbourhood services on a community scale, while enabling medical professionals to contribute their full potential.

The approach, initiated by the FIQ in 2008, allowed a broad-based reflection on the deficiencies of our healthcare system in offering neighbourhood healthcare and health services for individuals and their families. “We decided it was time to take the initiative and think and act differently!” Régine Laurent, President of the FIQ, told over 500 Federal Council delegates in Trois-Rivières. “We must go outside the traditional framework and propose concrete solutions to the existing problems, for the public and for healthcare professionals, who can and wish to contribute all their expertise,” she maintained.

Innovate to humanize care

Neighbourhood clinics

The first component of this project is the implementation of neighbourhood clinics. Inspired by the social and solidarity economy, the FIQ has created a model of democratically administered clinics in which healthcare and medical professionals could give people the benefit of all their competencies and expertise. “Why would a mother wait 10 or 12 hours in the emergency room because her child has a cold or an ear infection, when a care professional can meet her needs? Healthcare and medical professionals have competencies that families and our healthcare system can no longer do without,” Ms. Laurent affirmed.

Small homes for seniors

The second component of the FIQ’s new models is the creation of small homes for seniors. “I have always been told that you don’t uproot a mature tree. For me, this also means not moving seniors based on the care they need. The system should adapt, the care and services should follow the individual, and not the other way around,” the President of the FIQ maintained. The small homes the FIQ will establish, with community partners, have the objective of allowing seniors to grow old in a safe environment, by adjusting care according to the changes in their conditions and enabling them to play an active part in the decisions that concern them.

Union power in healthcare

In its approach, the FIQ, which represents the majority of healthcare professionals in Québec, recognized that neighbourhood clinics and small homes for seniors could not be created in a vacuum. It appeared obvious that an alliance with all medical professionals was necessary to carry out such a project. “To develop a diversified offering that really meets the public’s complex needs, we are convinced that we must all join forces. Making this power in healthcare a reality necessarily depends on the creation of a new labour organization, built jointly by the existing organizations, which would bring together both healthcare professionals and medical professionals of Québec,” Ms. Laurent argued.

This launch is part of an approach leading up to April 2014, when the FIQ will hold its 10th Convention in Quebec City.

For more information on the FIQ’s new models, visit sortonsducadre.info/human-scale.

About the FIQ

The FIQ represents over 62,000 nursing and cardiorespiratory care professionals – the vast majority of the nurses, licensed practical nurses, respiratory therapists and perfusionists working in Quebec public institutions.