The emergency room of the Suroît hospital in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield temporarily and partially closed its doors overnight from Sunday to Monday, due to lack of sufficient staff.
Emergency cases were handled, but patients with minor problems who showed up there before 8 a.m. were told to go home.
A poster “Temporary closure of the emergency room” had also been installed at the entrance.
At 8 a.m. Monday, the occupancy rate on the stretcher at Suroît exceeded 200%. Patients have been installed in the assessment rooms, reports the president of the Union of healthcare professionals of Montérégie-Ouest-FIQ, Mélanie Gignac. “The cubes where the doctors see the patients are full,” she said in an interview with the To have to, at 7 a.m. Monday. There’s a lady sitting in a chair right in the middle of the ER. »
The CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest denies that the emergency was closed overnight. The establishment indicates that the posters “are removed”. “Validations are underway to find out who installed them, since this initiative had not had the approval of a manager or members of management,” says spokeswoman Jade Saint-Jean.
The CISSS recognizes, however, that patients who went to the emergency room had to return home. “All patients were triaged, but there was little capacity, non-emergency cases (priorities 4 and 5) were being asked that night to go home and try to see their family doctor today or come back after 8 a.m. to avoid having them wait too long,” explains Jade Saint-Jean.
The lack of staff is glaring at the Suroît hospital. “On the evening shift, in the emergency room, we only have three nurses on the board,” says Mélanie Gignac. They should be between 15 and 17, according to her. Day nurses must therefore regularly work overtime and compulsory overtime.
More details to come.