Baie-Comeau Emergencies | “We need help!”

(Quebec) The workforce crisis is worsening at the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, where the capacity of the emergency room in Baie-Comeau – a town of more than 20,000 inhabitants – is planned to be reduced to five stretchers. A catastrophic scenario, in the eyes of the department head, who is crying for help.

“We need help!” says the head of the emergency department at Le Royer hospital, Dr.^D Stéphanie Thibault. The CISSS de la Côte-Nord presented a new reorganization plan on Friday based on the resources available for the coming days.

The regional establishment has been plunged into a crisis since the spring, caused by the tightening of government rules governing the use of independent labour. On Thursday, 10 doctors from the region accused Quebec of “playing Russian roulette” with the population.¹.

“What we are being offered is: every time our patients are stabilized, we will take them upstairs […] where we will transfer them to other centers [à l’extérieur de la région] “, deplores the D^D Thibault. “More than five ambulances come in here every day, […] in addition to the patients on site who need a stretcher, observation…,” lists the doctor, out of breath.

The Baie-Comeau emergency room normally has 10 hospital beds, says the CISSS de la Côte-Nord. “But in recent years, we were operating like the other centres [de la province] with 150, 180% capacity, that is to say with 15 to 18 occupied stretchers,” relates the D^D Thibault. The Baie-Comeau facilities are the largest in the region along with those in Sept-Îles.

Baie-Comeau is more than 400 kilometres from Quebec City. Since the start of the crisis, at least fifty patients, including babies, have had to be sent outside to receive care.

“What history has taught us in recent months is that it is very difficult to transfer patients. […] “We need air ambulances, ambulances for a five-hour journey. It can’t be organized in an hour,” laments the doctor. She points out that other institutions are also dealing with shortages and that some patients are outright refusing their transfer.

On Friday, the minister’s office reiterated that it “wanted to ensure that the situation improves in the coming days” and “to maintain the pressure” in this regard.

“Breaking the barriers”

North Shore doctors implore Christian Dubé to “give [au CISSS] ways to break down administrative barriers to implement exceptional solutions. Without going into details, the D^D Thibault says several solutions are currently on the table, but they are being hampered by administrative mazes and union rules.

“This morning, there were people on vacation who took the call. It’s not a local problem, people are doing their triple maximum,” she pleads.

She also explains that she does not want to “scare” the population, but rather to inform them. “We want a mobilization. There is no one who wants this plan.” […] This is currently our only plan because we do not have the support of our government to put resources in place and make different plans,” she said.

Furthermore, the flying team promised by Minister Dubé to lend a hand on the North Shore and in Abitibi-Témiscamingue – regions particularly affected by the end of the use of agencies – is slow to deploy while reinforcements are arriving in dribs and drabs. At the latest count, 14 health workers have been dispatched to the North Shore territory, including 3 nurses and 4 nursing assistants.

The CISSS de la Côte-Nord has confirmed that it is planning “an increase in the emergency department to five stretchers” for Baie-Comeau. The establishment adds that the measure will be accompanied by an increase in hospital beds at Le Royer Hospital, without specifying the number. It should be noted that several sectors are affected by a reorganization of services elsewhere in the territory.

According to the D^D Thibault, the controversial plan would be in effect from August 15 to 19. At the time of writing, efforts were continuing to avoid it.

“A close liaison is also planned with the teams of the Centre d’optimisation – Occupation des lits de soins ICU provincial in order to ensure fluidity in the Baie-Comeau emergency room based on adequate and safe capacity,” writes the CISSS. This is a 24/7 call centre that coordinates transfer requests for patients whose condition requires critical care.

1. Read “Quebec “plays Russian roulette” with patients, doctors accuse”

They said

The fact that patients are still paying for the lack of staff suggests that either Mr. Dubé launched this idea without having the means to match his ambitions, or that he simply tried to calm things down politically, knowing full well that he would not succeed. Honestly, the idea is not bad, the need is there, but Mr. Dubé did not do the work to put this team in place.

André Fortin, Liberal health spokesperson

After improvisation and broken promises of future help, the government is taking dangerous gambles for patients and, in addition, is lacking transparency. Minister Dubé’s repeated failures are putting the population in danger; this is unacceptable. I am asking him to make public a real update on the deployment of this flying team, which should already be on the Côte-Nord to help emergency rooms.

Vincent Marissal, solidarity spokesperson in health matters

Flying team, I can’t understand why we get bogged down in the flowers of the negotiation mat [avec les syndicats] which has been going on for two months while we have a crisis where we have a population that is not being treated or that does not have services that meet standards. […] A situation like this is tolerable only because it is taking place in a region of Quebec said to be far from major centres.

Joël Arseneau, PQ spokesperson for health