Outaouais voters looking for health-care remedy

With just three days until the Quebecelection, advocates say voters in the Outaouais region are looking for solutions to salvage the region's failing health-care system.

Throughout the campaign, candidates have promised to fix staff and resource shortages at the region's hospitals.

"Health care has been debated like it never has before," said Andrew Gibson, a member with the health advocacy group Sant Outaouais 2020.

"There has been a running series of crises, the crisis of avoidable deaths," Gibson said. "These deaths could be avoided, butsomehow, because there is so much stress on the system,people are falling through the cracks."

The opposition CoalitionAvenirQubecis promising to build a new hospital in western Quebec within its first term, while the Quebec Liberals promise to spend money on hiring morehealth-care workers in the region.

Voters in the region have until Oct. 1 to decide how best to address thehealth-carecrisis.

'It was a nightmare'

Gatineau resident Stephanie Bond saidafter experiencing the region's health-care system first-hand, she's been paying closer attention this election.

This is something no one wants to live through.- Stephanie Bond, Gatineauresident

Bond said she spent countless hours at various hospitals with her mother, who's battling cancer and uses a wheelchair. She said some of the hospitals weren't fully accessible.

"It was a nightmare, in terms of accessibilityand also transfers from one centre to another," she told CBCRadio's Ottawa Morning.

Bond said the hospitals were short on both beds and staff, and her mother had to wait six months for long-term care.

"I still wake up, four years after this experienceand two-and-a-half years after my mom's passing, thinking, 'Does my mom have enough water tonight? Will someone be there to turn her in the night?'This is something no one wants to live through."

Reliance on Ontario

Both Gibson and Bond saidtheQuebec government relies too heavily on Ontario's medical system to treat patients fromGatineau.

At the same time, Quebec health professionals are choosing to work in Ontario.

"That needs to be addressed" Bond said."We are losing our best people across the border. I advocate strongly for higher salary and a special status fort this region so we can keep our best health-care workers at our side."