The “One call, one appointment” telephone service, which allowed Montreal parents to quickly obtain a medical consultation when their child was sick, ended on March 31. The initiative, which aimed to unclog emergency rooms, ends just as Quebec begins a sixth wave of COVID-19.
The phone line was launched last September by Montreal’s Regional Department of General Medicine (DRMG) to reduce pressure on emergency rooms in pediatric hospitals, which were overflowing with patients without a family doctor or unable to get an appointment with their. Thanks to the “One call, one appointment” telephone line, they were quickly referred to a medical clinic or the right resource.
This service no longer exists. “Please make an appointment with your family doctor or contact your local clinic by phone or online via Rendez-vous santé Québec,” the voicemail for “One call, one appointment” now reads.
Why interrupt the service in the middle of the sixth wave? The DRMG explains that this service was “a temporary COVID measure” put in place when the emergencies of the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center (CHU) and the Montreal Children’s Hospital had to deal with heavy traffic. The situation has since changed.
“We’re following this closely,” says Sébastien Blin, director of the regional directorate for access to first-line medical services at the DRMG. That doesn’t mean we won’t react. “He does not rule out a reopening if necessary. “We work in agile mode. »
The DD Laurie Plotnick, medical director of the emergency department at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, hopes that “One call, one appointment” will be “restored if necessary”. “Of course we can’t predict the future, but with the sixth wave and already an increase in other infectious diseases in children, we suspect we will see an increase in visits to our emergency room,” she says. .
At CHU Saint-Justine, the Director of Professional Services, Dr.r Marc Girard, recalls that with the beautiful season, respiratory viruses generally circulate less. “Where we can be a little more worried is when we will start the flu and infection season next fall,” he thinks.
An effective initiative
“One call, one appointment” has made many parents happy. The line has also proven to be effective in reducing hospital traffic. In six months, it handled more than 45,000 calls, according to the DRMG. “It made it possible to reduce the volume of clients in the two pediatric emergencies by 14 or 15% during the critical period for them,” says Sébastien Blin.
This initiative being completed, parents must now contact their family doctor or try to find a consultation in a clinic through Rendez-vous Santé Québec. They can also reach an 811 nurse for information in the event of a non-urgent problem, recalls the DRMG.
The Dr Girard is well aware that parents may have to make several calls to find an appointment. But he stresses that family doctors must also be available for their older clientele, and not just those aged 0-16. “The single number was because there were a number of clinics that were willing to offer us time slots,” he says. This availability was reduced during the month of March. »
Family doctors have resumed their regular activities. “There is pressure from all of the clientele, who want an appointment with their family doctor, when they may not have had it in the last few months or even the last two years. “, he adds.