2023-07-29 04:00:00
The capacity in several emergency rooms in Quebec is reaching its limits and there is “very little room for maneuver”, warns the Association of Emergency Physicians of Quebec (AMUQ) while the holiday period is in full swing.
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“The watchword is that we have very little room for manoeuvre. We see it as soon as there are small increases in visits or a small decrease in the capacity of the network, ”says the president of the organization, the Dre Judy Morris.
This situation is explained in particular by the fact that a large number of workers are on vacation, thus exacerbating the lack of personnel.
In some territories, particularly the greater Montreal area, the indicators are “exploding”.
“We have occupancy rates on stretchers, sometimes, which go up to 180, 200%. This is not normal, ”says the Dre Morris.
Fragile network
Sometimes, the services offered seem to hang by a thread, especially in rural areas.
“There are plenty of circles that tell us “we are one or two departures away from having to close our doors” […]. These are things that we heard much less before, then that now we hear on an almost regular basis in several circles.
It’s an additional burden on employees’ shoulders as overtime increases, as does the use of agencies, according to the doctor.
Another problem is that patients who no longer need to be in hospital continue to occupy beds for lack of space elsewhere in the network, in long-term care for example.
“We are a little stretched to the maximum, then that, it is not things that we saw as much in the summer periods. […] We see that the network is very, very fragile,” said the president of the AMUQ.
The care might therefore not be optimal, fears the doctor, according to whom the longer-term planning will have to be reviewed to bring more redundancy into the network.
“We have to be able to absorb the holidays, to absorb certain unexpected departures.”
No noticeable increase
However, according to the Dre Morris, we have not noticed a significant increase in visits to the emergency room, although episodes of heat and poor air quality may have led to a few additional cases.
“I would say to you, a little, a chance”, she sighs, saying that a significant increase would have been difficult to absorb.
In June, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, was already anticipating a difficult summer. He then invited people to use the 811 telephone line, which notably provides access to the first-line access counter, to preserve emergencies.
As of Wednesday, the overall occupancy rate for stretchers in emergency rooms across the province was 105%, according to the ministry’s dashboard. This rate reached 144% in Lanaudière and the Laurentians.
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