The emergency room at Anna-Laberge Hospital in Montérégie reached an occupancy rate of 200%, a chaotic situation, which prompted a nurse to denounce in a publication on Facebook.
A video recorded Tuesday followingnoon shows a dozen ambulances waiting for the emergency with their patient. Unable to care for patients due to a lack of stretchers.
According to our information, an elderly man in a state of confusion had to wait 6 hours on the paramedics’ stretcher in the garage. It was not even possible to offer him a place in a corridor, inside. And he was not alone, said nurses judging that the patients were “pityful”.
Cathy Larocque, an exhausted nurse, gave a heartfelt cry yesterday by posting her message on Facebook. She is categorical: do not come to the Anna-Laberge emergency if it is not urgent, she warns, describing the chaotic situation.
“It’s called ambulance detention. There is no physical place to see the patient on the stretcher or set him up before seeing the doctor. As long as the patient is taken care of by the paramedic, the latter are not elsewhere on the territory and cannot intervene for road accidents or a heart attack. Yes the health system is obsolete […] Please if you can avoid the Anna-Laberge emergency, do so. […] It’s been a 24-30 hour wait at the hospital, and believe me, we’re not idle…”
The local branch of the Interprofessional Health Federation shares the concerns of the nurse who denounced.
“I have a lot of fears for the population because situations like this are more and more frequent. I have fears that there are errors or omissions, or that people decide not to go to the emergency room so as not to wait, ”explains Maxime Laforce-Steben of the Union of Care Professionals of Montérégie-Ouest. , of the FIQ.
The direction of the Anna-Laberge Hospital explains that the situation in the emergency room is caused by an exceptional traffic of ambulances over the past few days.
“For the past few days, the Anna-Laberge Hospital has received a number of ambulances clearly above the average, more than 14%. The hospitalization floors are full and several users in the emergency room require hospitalization. The labor shortage also has a major impact on the admission capacity. Among the actions to relieve congestion in the emergency room, the hospital teams opened 15 additional beds and redirected non-priority clients to other alternatives. Despite the challenges, the number of patients in acute care level (ASL) remains very low (8.5%).
The management also invites the population to go to the emergency room only for emergencies.
“We also invite people without a family doctor to contact the first line access counter. Depending on the situation, an appointment with a health professional may be offered. In closing, the teams are currently mobilized to find other possible solutions. We would like to thank the teams on the ground who allow us to maintain health care for the population.
