Between the incessant noise and the lack of privacy, Michel Bernier says he experienced “hell” during his hospitalization on a stretcher in a corridor at the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital, in Laval, last month last. Around forty stretchers are currently used to relieve congestion in the establishment’s emergency rooms.
What there is to know
In February, Michel Bernier was hospitalized for a week on a stretcher in the corridor at the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital in Laval.
Around forty stretchers are used in all of the establishment’s care units to relieve congestion in emergencies.
Mr. Bernier and his wife deplore the lack of confidentiality caused by the use of stretchers in the corridor, since he was able to hear discussions between health professionals on the state of health of patients in the floor.
“I spent the entire week in the corridor, in front of the guard post. All that separated me from the post, about three feet away from me, was a curtain. »
Michel Bernier was hospitalized in February at the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital for gallstones which caused severe stomach pain. After a day in the emergency room on a stretcher, he was informed that a place on the floor had become available. ” I was happy. I told myself that I was finally going to have a comfortable place. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BERNIER
The guard post (left) was located just a few feet from Michel Bernier’s stretcher (right).
The medical team took him to the fifth floor. But to his surprise, he was instead left in the hallway, lying on his stretcher. The location of his stretcher was marked with black and yellow tape on the ground. He will stay there for a week.
It’s hell. No alarm button if there is a problem, no control over the lighting and for the toilet, I have to use those in adjacent rooms.
Michel Bernier
In the evening, around 8:30 p.m., the lights were dimmed. “But we didn’t close them. » He heard everything that was happening at the guardhouse. Day and night. “There were phone calls all the time. I even heard them talking about union strategy. I haven’t slept all week. »
The patients on his floor were generally elderly, some with cognitive problems. “A man was screaming at all hours of the day and night. Another was singing in front of me. It was chaos upstairs,” he recalls.
Unclog emergency rooms
In the last year, Quebec asked health establishments to implement a hospital overcapacity protocol. This protocol allows floors to accommodate a greater number of patients and thus free up emergencies which reach an occupancy rate likely to compromise patient safety.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Cité-de-la-Santé hospital, in Laval
The use of stretchers on the floors of the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital therefore aims to increase the number of beds available in the hospital for emergency patients awaiting hospitalization, indicates the communications advisor at the Laval Integrated Health and Social Services Center, Isabelle Miller. She maintains that emergency room capacity is “too often insufficient” for the needs of the population.
In Laval, excess capacity is used on all care units. “Some stretchers used are in rooms, others in the corridors,” says Mme Miller. She said overcapacity usage fluctuates from day to day, but the average usage is about 40 stretchers.
” It’s inhumane “
After seven days in the hallway, Michel Bernier broke down. “I was in tears, in crisis. They found me a room. » He remained in the hospital for an additional week before being discharged.
“The medical staff, whether attendants, nurses or doctors, are silk. They’re really good people. It’s the hospital administration that is not working,” maintains Michel Bernier. His partner, Anne Guimond, made a complaint to the establishment. “What we experienced was inhumane,” she said.
The couple particularly deplores the lack of confidentiality caused by the use of stretchers in the corridor, since they were able to hear all the discussions between members of the health staff.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Michel Bernier and his partner Anne Guimond
At the shift change, we knew everything the patients had as an illness. There was no patient confidentiality.
Anne Guimond, spouse of Michel Bernier
When she asked for news about her husband, health personnel were not always allowed to answer her. She therefore waited for the shift change at 3 p.m. and “heard everything” about Mr. Bernier’s state of health when the staff was discussing.
At the beginning of January, an opinion letter entitled “Corridor medicine, elder abuse” appeared in The duty reported a similar situation. Lise Labelle reported that her 88-year-old husband was lying on a stretcher in a corridor for seven days and six nights at the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital, or half of his stay.
Read the opinion letter “Corridor medicine, elder abuse”
“In my opinion, it is mistreatment of an elderly person to expose them to the full view of all the employees and visitors moving in a corridor when you have to use a chair toilets with a single curtain to isolate yourself a little. Where is the respect for the elderly person who has paid taxes all their life and who continues to pay more? », We could read there.