Greater Montreal Emergencies | A crisis unit received in halftone

Well received by some, criticized by others. The crisis unit set up Thursday by Minister Christian Dubé to try to relieve congestion in the emergency rooms of Greater Montreal is raising hopes among emergency physicians. But for the more skeptical opposition parties, it could be a simple “smokescreen”.

Alice Girard-Bosse
The Press

During this first day of meetings, “CEOs, emergency and front-line experts were mobilized,” said the office of Minister Christian Dubé. The composition of this group will evolve over the next few days.

This cell, which covers Greater Montreal, aims to reduce the pressure on the 25 most problematic emergencies. To achieve this, “all the solutions are on the table”, indicated the Minister of Health, who went Thursday morning to the CHU Sainte-Justine in the company of a member of the crisis unit, the D^D Lucie Opartny.

In the short term, the crisis unit wishes in particular to improve hospital fluidity and triage, “but above all to improve [la] front line so people don’t go to the emergency room,” the firm said.

Wednesday, The Press reported that health staff could no longer attend to all the patients in the emergency room. The high traffic has serious consequences such as heart attacks treated too late or patients returned home despite a heavy diagnosis.

Mixed reactions

“We are very happy with the creation of this unit and to see that the Minister wants to involve CEOs and senior managers. It gives us hope,” says the president of the Association of Emergency Medicine Specialists of Quebec, Dr.^r Gilbert Boucher.

The committee will focus on the Montreal region and its crowns, where the situation “is much more problematic,” he said. The D^r Boucher is aware, however, that the situation is problematic elsewhere, particularly in Sherbrooke, Gatineau and Quebec.

“Attacking the entire province right now is not realistic. Each establishment has its own problems. You have to start somewhere, then starting with Montreal is perhaps the best way to work,” he says.

The specialist, who is impatient to know what measures will be put in place by the committee, fears, however, that the lack of human resources will limit the possible interventions. “Several years ago, when the emergency room was full, we bought 150 beds or a hotel. Now, no more resources can be purchased. It will be necessary to distribute the workload better, to be more efficient and to speed up the processes,” he says.

“A smokescreen”

For the member for Rosemont and health critic for Québec solidaire, Vincent Marissal, this committee is a “new smokescreen”. “The health network has been a permanent crisis unit for years. We’ve seen it coming for months, “he laments in an interview with The Press.

The MP asked Minister Christian Dubé for a weekly meeting with opposition politicians to follow the state of the situation. “We have a real real emergency. Emergency rooms in Quebec are often overcrowded, but at this level, it’s almost unheard of. In the immediate future, I ask him to convene the opposition parties to hear where things stand and be able to submit some suggestions to him,” he said.

For the leader of the Liberal Party, Dominique Anglade, the crisis unit “will have to prove itself quickly”. “It remains essential to guarantee better access to the front line and better working conditions, in particular by setting up the project-ratios and abolishing compulsory overtime,” she said.

The MP for the Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Parti Québécois spokesperson for health, Joël Arseneau, judges that the announcement of a crisis unit for Montreal seems “improvised, insufficient and above all incomplete in its composition,” he said in a statement.

His party is instead asking to create a crisis unit for all of Quebec, “which will bring together not only network managers, but independent experts, emergency physicians and especially unions and field staff”.