The union of healthcare professionals in Montérégie-Ouest, affiliated with the FIQ, is sounding the alarm. The emergency room at Anna-Laberge Hospital in Châteauguay is overflowing to such an extent, he reports, that a patient had to be placed in a chair with a small mobile table rather than a stretcher in a corridor. Others are in rooms without access to bells to ask for help if they feel unwell. “It’s a disaster! said President Mélanie Gignac.
The emergency room occupancy rate is currently 200%. The emergency has 64 patients on stretchers. “This morning, a patient was lying on a stretcher in a corner of the wall, reports Dominic Caisse, union agent for the FIQ at Anna-Laberge Hospital. He’s in the emergency room for seizures. He’s a bit in plain sight, but he has no bells within reach if there’s an emergency or anything. »
Nurses fear the worst, according to Mélanie Gignac. “They struggle with the feeling of not caring for patients well,” she says. Despite the fact that they do 1000% of their best, they do not have the time to take care of the patients adequately and they are afraid of escaping. »
The duty spoke on the phone to an ER nurse who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “People here are not safe,” she said. We can’t do our job well. Fires are extinguished. She indicates that only one of the three “shock rooms”, equipped with various devices to accommodate patients in critical situations, is currently available. Patients who have been treated there must stay there, for lack of space elsewhere.
A lack of beds
According to Dominic Caisse, 36 of the 64 patients on stretchers need to be hospitalized. They stay in the emergency room because there is no room on the upper floors.
Anna-Laberge Hospital recently had to close a 40-bed hospital unit due to lack of staff. Information confirmed by several sources at To have to. Arrested Thursday morning, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest has not yet answered questions from the newspaper.
The nurse to whom The duty spoke explains that the Anna-Laberge Hospital is currently accepting patients from the territory of the Suroît Hospital, due to the lack of staff in the latter establishment. “We have an ambulatory overload, she believes. We were told that we would have 5 more ambulances a day [de la région du Suroît], but that’s over 15 more. »
Mélanie Gignac indicates that Anna-Laberge staff are affected by COVID-19, as in other hospitals, but that nurses continue to resign due to difficult working conditions.
Further details will follow.