Quebec hospitals must now free up beds for patients who can be monitored externally, in addition to preparing to reduce the quality of care in the event that the situation deteriorates further.
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“If someone had asked me one day if I would work on such a document, I would have answered: ‘never, it’s inconceivable’. But we got there,” said the president of the Association of Internal Medicine Specialists of Quebec, Dr.r Hoang Duong, during a presentation to the media.
Quebec presented on Tuesday its “Guide for the prioritization and management of short-term hospitalizations” in order to deal with the shortage of workers in the health network, combined with the increase in hospitalizations caused by the pandemic. It was written by the COVID-19 Ethics Committee, chaired by Marie-Ève Bouthillier.
The first phase plans to free up the beds devoted to “alternative care”, i.e. patients who can continue to be monitored externally. They will either have to return home, to a CHSLD or an RPA, where they will receive home care.
The Ministry of Health thus hopes to free up around 600 additional beds to cope with the pressure of the fifth wave. “It already exists, bed management, but we go much further [pour] have an extremely close follow-up of our use of our short-term beds”, explained the director general of hospital services, Lucie Poitras.
disaster scenario
If the situation persists, Quebec plans to reduce the quality of care for a period of four to six weeks in order to be able to continue to treat the entire population.
At a press conference alongside the Minister of Health Christian Dubé, Deputy Minister Lucie Opatrny illustrated the proposal as follows: “instead of giving A+ to few people, giving care of [niveau] B to all” for a fixed period.
However, this second phase has not yet been implemented. But the network must prepare for the worst. “The situation, currently, it is tense, but we have not arrived there”, specified the Dr Hoang Duong.
Return of staff
Despite these worrying considerations, Minister Dubé offered some encouraging information on Tuesday. The rise in new hospitalizations is slowing and nearly 8,000 healthcare workers are back on the job.
Stressing that “the health system is at a standstill”, Mr. Dubé again invited the population to get a third dose of the vaccine against COVID-19, in order to relieve the pressure on hospitals.