Medical imaging (diagnostic radiology and sonography), nuclear medicine, radiation oncology and medical electrophysiology Results of APTS member surveys conducted in the fall of 2022

Surveys of medical imaging, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology and medical electrophysiology technologists help us understand their concerns in terms of work organization and professional issues. The four surveys on medical imaging (diagnostic radiology and sonography), nuclear medicine, radiation oncology and medical electrophysiology were sent by the organization of work and professional issues sector (SOTEP) to concerned APTS members between September 21 and October 12, 2022. At a time when there is a shortage of labour, the government continues to implement a far-reaching reorganization of health and social services (Plan Santé), and waiting lists get longer, our technologists face many different challenges in their everyday work. We summarize these challenges below.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE SURVEYS

A significant number of respondents in a variety of sectors belong to a work team where some positions have been vacant for six months or more, and absent employees have not been replaced. As a consequence, teams are faced with a critical shortage of personnel. This finding, which is not surprising, supports a criticism of Bill 15 that has been made by many people including Denis Bédard, former president of the Treasury Board Secretariat: most of the problems in the health and social service system are related not to governance issues, but to working conditions (note 1).

Lack of personnel necessarily has a negative impact on the workload of technologists employed in these sectors. Close to half of our respondents said their workload was either not appropriate or not completely appropriate, which tells us about the work overload prevailing in their sectors.

Our next task was to gain insight into the factors that contribute the most to making people’s workload heavier. In each sector, four factors stand out: the labour shortage, urgent requests from doctors, the number of users or patients per shift, and the fact that absent employees are not replaced.

Work overload related in part to the labour shortage and urgent requests from doctors clearly has an impact on the overtime done by our respondents. Almost 1 in 2 technologists does 1 to 6 hours of overtime in a regular work week. We also learn that many of our members do not systematically declare the overtime they do, distorting the data available to the employer about work overload within some work teams.

Data from the survey also demonstrate that work overload has a non-trivial impact on rest periods. It is troubling to see how few of our members (only 14% of medical imaging technologists) are always able to take their breaks and lunch period during a regular work week.

CONSEQUENCES

These findings make it easy for us to make a connection between current working conditions and the capacity of the health and social service system to retain exhausted employees. It is troubling to see that over half of our respondents thought of leaving the public health system during the past year. This means that current teams may face departures in the near future, which could lead to significant imbalances in medical imaging, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology and medical electrophysiology departments.

Additional departures would increase current levels of work overload, and this in turn would lead to more departures. While the health and social service ministry (MSSS) has repeatedly asserted that the major reform it is now undertaking (Bill 15) will make the health and social service system a more attractive employer, there is no guarantee that this will be the case. In fact, the experience of the Barrette reform tends to demonstrate the opposite – that large-scale changes of this kind are likely to make the system less attractive (note 2).

WHY PEOPLE ARE LEAVING THE SYSTEM

We need to understand the reasons impelling technologists to think of leaving their job. The chief motive expressed by respondents in all fields is that they want to change occupations. Is the exodus related to working conditions in the various sectors? Answers to the surveys tend to confirm this hypothesis.

For medical imaging and medical electrophysiology technologists specifically, we see a clear attraction to private clinics – a trend confirmed by our local teams. The private sector’s flexible schedules and competitive pay are attracting a number of our members, aggravating the public system’s retention problem. Bill 15, which will open our public system even more to the private sector, will probably make this problem worse. And the government’s own figures show that the cost of surgical procedures, for instance, is up to twice as high in the private sector as in the public system.

It’s interesting to see that the private sector has little or no attraction for APTS members who are nuclear medicine or radiation oncology technologists. The fact that private clinics are not very numerous in these areas may be the reason. Technologists in these fields who are planning to leave the public system are more likely to be thinking of going back to school.

In the current situation, it’s not surprising that many respondents want to leave the public system: close to 30% of our technologists are planning to do so in the coming year. This is a deeply worrisome figure – it means that the system would lose approximately 1,628 technologists out of the 5,427 who are represented by the APTS. Given that only 300 students graduate from CEGEP every year in these fields, it will be very difficult to fill the vacant positions.

LACK OF RECOGNITION

Responses to the survey also show that close to 100% of our respondents believe that their profession is unknown to the general public. There is clearly a desire for greater recognition within all work environments. This is why we’re arguing more strongly than ever for measures to highlight the contribution of these professions and make them more attractive. These professions are too often forgotten – and they play a key role in making our system work.

Medical imaging (diagnostic radiology and sonography), nuclear medicine, radiation oncology and medical electrophysiology Results of APTS member surveys conducted in the fall of 2022

KEY FINDINGS OF THE SURVEYS

CONSEQUENCES

WHY PEOPLE ARE LEAVING THE SYSTEM

LACK OF RECOGNITION

FURTHER READING