With 164 dead in two days and hospitals posting a record number of patients hospitalized in intensive care, it is not tomorrow that hospital staff will be able to catch their breath even if Quebec returns to a more normal life tomorrow with the reopening of schools.
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“Despite the load shedding, there are still regions where the hospitals are still full to bursting at the moment,” said Judy Morris, president of the Association of Emergency Physicians of Quebec yesterday.
This week, the government warned the population that we would reach the peak of the 5and vague in terms of hospitalizations, so the weekend would be far from easy for health personnel.
There have indeed never been so many patients hospitalized with us since the start of the pandemic. Despite everything, Quebec will agree to live a little longer with the virus by reopening schools tomorrow.
However, this does not mean that everything will be rosy afterwards, believe intensivists who still expect several busy weeks. Because if hospitalizations are no longer rising as quickly, “they are still rising”, continues the DD Morris.
“We are worried throughout the network. It will be really important to follow the figures for the next few weeks to see which way we are really going. Will we see a rise in cases of sick workers with schools reopening? she asks.
Lack of beds
It is above all the lack of staff and the lack of beds “that are hurting the system at the moment”, estimates the Dr Germain Poirier, Chief of Intensive Care at Charles LeMoyne Hospital and President of the Society of Intensivists of Quebec.
If the situation on the ground seems to him to be rather stable – but precarious –, he believes that the reopening of schools is still realistic, but that procedures should be readjusted in the face of Omicron, which is more contagious, but much less virulent.
Perhaps it will be necessary to accept a certain risk to unclog the system, he explains, by returning positive patients, but who no longer need care.
“If we don’t change the rules, hospitals will continue to be bogged down,” he believes. Just that would mean that we would have a lot more beds in hospitals to reduce load shedding. »
Catch up on delays
Once the storm has passed, it will be necessary to catch up with the delays linked to the load shedding, which will add a weight to the health system of tomorrow, insists Dr. Michel De Marchie, intensivist at the Jewish Hospital of Montreal.
Especially since in some cases, such as for cancer patients, the time before treatment plays a decisive role and can make the difference between a fairly simple surgery and a difficult one. “Stress among hospital staff is present, constant. […] It’s additional and cumulative work,” he sighs.
In his opinion, the lull will not come before the summer for the nursing staff.
► The province deplored 96 new deaths on Saturday, a peak in 20 months.
As many deaths as last year
JANUARY 8 TO 14, 2022
- 61,521 case and 372 death
CASES AT THE SAME PERIOD IN 2021
- 14,178 case and 371 death
PEAK OF THE YEAR
2022 (14 JANUARY)
- 3195 hospitalizations
- 275 in intensive care
2021
- 1525 hospitalizations (Jan. 13)
- 230 in intensive care (Jan. 14)
2020 (12 MAY)
- 1866 hospitalizations (May 12)
- 227 in intensive care (April 23)
INSPQ sources and daily data from the Ministry of Health