About twenty people attended the Pontiac users’ committee annual general meeting, which was conducted on Monday, September 23, at the CLSC in Shawville by the regional health authority CISSSO.
The committee informs patients of their rights within the healthcare system and provides a forum for community members to provide input on the quality of care received from the health authority.
Nicole Boucher Larivière, a CISSSO representative for the Pontiac users, was present at the conference. Jean Pigeon, the director of the Gatineau Health Foundation and representative for the activist organization SOS Outaouais, was the meeting’s special guest.
Pigeon brought attention to the area’s reliance on private agency nurses, which account for roughly half of the nursing staff at Pontiac Hospital. That number was verified by Boucher Larivière, who also stated that the ratio had greatly grown in the years after the pandemic.
