(Montreal) The number of air-conditioned rooms in CHSLDs in Quebec continues to increase, but there is still a significant proportion of units without air conditioning, according to the Quebec Association of Retirees from the Public and Parapublic Sectors (AQRP) .
Nearly 60% of residents in CHSLDs will have access to an air-conditioned room in 2023, indicate data compiled by the AQRP and published on Monday.
This represents a slight increase of 2.3 percentage points compared to 2022. Over the past 10 years, the percentage of air-conditioned rooms in establishments has steadily increased, rising from 8% to 59%.
If this progression seems to show a desire to ensure better air conditioning in CHSLDs, the fact remains that 40% of the rooms in the network are without air conditioning, notes the provincial president of the AQRP, Paul-René Roy.
“In a period of extreme heat as we experienced, it poses problems for residents with reduced mobility because even if there are common rooms which are air-conditioned, there are people who have great difficulty moving around. “, he said in an interview.
The data shows that the CHSLD network received more than 4,800 requests this year to air-condition individual rooms. But Mr. Roy affirms that the investigation of his organization did not make it possible to know how many of these requests were accepted.
In view of the statistics obtained, the establishments seem to favor the air conditioning of common areas more than that of the rooms, mentions the AQRP, while most CHSLDs have at least one air-conditioned common room.
The association’s results are based on an access to information request sent to all CISSSs and CIUSSSs last May. Five of them did not follow up, including those of Lanaudière, Chaudière-Appalaches and Gaspésie.