Just like last year at this time, several Quebec emergency rooms are currently overflowing. Patients who should be hospitalized are waiting on stretchers due to a lack of space on the floor. A situation that worries doctors, given the high traffic that the virus season is expected to bring in the coming weeks.
On Monday morning, the average occupancy rate of Quebec emergency rooms listed on the Index Santé website was 123%. This rate was, among others, 161% in Laval, 158% in the Laurentians, 136% in Lanaudière, 145% in Montreal, 136% in Outaouais, 128% in Montérégie and 115% in Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec.
For the past three weeks, Mondays and the following two or three days have been very busy, notes D.r Gilbert Boucher, president of the Association of Emergency Medicine Specialists of Quebec (ASMUQ). “We then regain a little control, but it starts again the following week. It’s very difficult.”
“Right now, there is more COVID-19 and viruses, but we are far from flu season. It will be very hard to face the next season with the state of affairs we have now,” adds Dr.r Butcher.
According to Index Santé, 774 patients on stretchers had been waiting for more than 24 hours Monday morning in Quebec. There were 344 waiting for more than 48 hours. “There are a lot of patients waiting for a hospital bed and it’s backing up the emergency room,” says Dr.D Judy Morris, president of the Quebec Association of Emergency Physicians.
This is due in particular to the fact that a high proportion of people in hospital beds would be ready to leave the hospital, but they are taken there due to a lack of space, among other things, in CHSLDs, intermediate resources or rehabilitation centres to accommodate them, explains Dr.D Morris. Some are also waiting to have access to home care to return home safely.
As of September 13, the occupancy rate of users no longer requiring hospital care was nearly 15%. Quebec’s target for this rate is rather 8%.
Further details will follow.