Only one imagery tech departs Pontiac Hospital for city

Only one imagery tech departs Pontiac Hospital for city

Following Saturday’s news that the provincial government had equalized the bonuses for medical imagery technicians in the Outaouais, regional health authority CISSSO is reporting that only one  tech out of four has followed through on their application to work in the city. This leaves the Pontiac Hospital with five out of eight full-time positions filled, with another two part-time staff available to fill in.

CISSSO’s Pontiac representative Nicole Boucher Larivière said that they were pleased to report that most of the technicians had chosen to stay. She added that one tech had interviewed to work in a facility in Ontario, but at this point hadn’t informed them that they were leaving Pontiac.

She explained that they would be able to maintain services as before, albeit with some more overtime and on-call hours, which she said wasn’t ideal but was a “scenario [they] can live with.” She said that she hoped the $22,000 annual bonus offered for the next two years would make their recruitment efforts more competitive with other facilities in the region.

Currently, out of all the hospitals in the Outaouais, Pontiac has the lowest wait times for scans according to data from the CISSSO.

Scan wait times as of July 2024	CT Scan	Diagnostic Mammogram	Screening Mammogram	Ultrasound
Pontiac	under 3 months	under 3 months	4 months	4-5 months
Papineau	7-8 months	under 3 months	under 3 months	20 months
Maniwaki	4-5 months	under 3 months	7 months	6-7 months
Gatineau/Hull	12 months	5 months	5 months	18 months

Pontiac, as a smaller rural hospital, also averages a much lower monthly number of scans on average.

Average monthly # of examinations	CT Scan	Mammogram	Ultrasound
Pontiac	187	162	251
Papineau	315	326	396
Maniwaki	216	55	222
Gatineau	896	569	977
Hull	815	676	230