2024-07-29 18:56:00
Emergency rooms in Forestville and Escumin in the Haute-Cote will be completely closed for several days this week due to a lack of adequate staff.
North Shore Integrated Health and Social Services (CISSS) has warned new cuts will hit the region following recent service disruptions. He noted that this was due to “a shortage of nursing and medical personnel.”
The situation will force the Forestville emergency room to completely close Monday through Tuesday and Friday through Sunday. Open Wednesday and Thursday from 8am to 5pm only. As for the Escoumins emergency room, it does not accept any patients on Wednesday evenings, or during the day or night from Thursday to Sunday.
“Those who need to consult a doctor during the period of reduced emergency department services in the Haute-Côte d’Or department should go to the Baicomo Emergency Department or the Chicoutimi Hospital,” the CISSS said. Both are about an hour and 50 minutes’ drive from Les Escoumins.
[C’est une] Death is only a matter of time. This is a vast territory that is being abandoned.
Citizens of Forestville need to drive 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach Le Royer Hospital in Baie-Comeau. However, the facility’s emergency rooms and operating rooms are operating at reduced capacity, and beds in its overflow wards have been closed. The same situation occurred at Qidao Hospital.
“Summer brings an economic slowdown every year. [L’accès] Restrictions on the independent workforce will result in some reductions in services,” CISSS explains. On the North Shore, home support services have also been reduced.
“Before an avoidable tragedy occurs”
“It’s only a matter of time before there are deaths,” Escumin mayor André Desrosiers told Le Devoir on Monday. “This is a huge area that we are abandoning,” he stressed.
This week, emergency rooms in Escoumins and Forestville will be fully closed at the same time, Friday through Sunday. They will also be held on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
In the travel industry, sometimes there are traffic jams in certain places, which means that the journey from Les Escoumins to Chicoutimi Hospital may take longer. “Also, we are in the middle of summer. Road accidents happen all the time,” he warned.
On Sunday, citizens of Haut-Côte launched an online petition asking Quebec’s National Assembly to intervene to ensure people have access to emergency hospital care.
“Immediate reinforcements are necessary before an avoidable tragedy occurs,” they stressed. They specifically asked Quebec to implement “effective transitional measures” to compensate for the withdrawal of employment agencies from their communities.
As of last Wednesday, six members of the flying team promised by Health Minister Christian Dube had been deployed to the region. This involved four health and social care assistants, a beneficiary attendant and a nurse who was sent to the scene.
Mr Dube’s office, contacted by Le Devoir, said: “A nurse and an auxiliary nurse will be sent to Escumin this week.”
The minister’s office said efforts were continuing to send additional personnel to the North Shore to restore the situation. “With the holidays coming up, it’s a particularly difficult time of year,” he said.
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