Our Bureau of Investigation compiled and analyzed the average delays between an urgent 9-1-1 call and the arrival of ambulances in the 112 municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants in Quebec, over a period of one year. Result: nearly 85% of them are unable to provide an ambulance in the required time to a person whose life is threatened.
A family from Val-des-Monts thought about leaving the city because the ambulances took so long to arrive during their daughter’s severe epileptic attacks.
“The wait is practically unbearable. As a parent, seeing your child convulse and be helpless is very difficult,” says with emotion Pascal Thibault, who has lived in Val-des-Monts since 2013.
This Outaouais city has the worst waiting time, according to a compilation by our Bureau of Investigation, which analyzed, over a period of one year, the delays between an urgent 911 call and the arrival of ambulances. for the 112 municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants in Quebec.
Up to 20 minutes
The Thibaults know something about this. Between 2016 and 2020, their epileptic daughter’s condition required a call to 911 eight times. She then had to be rushed to the hospital, otherwise her seizure would not end.
On six occasions, it was judged by emergency dispatchers that little Abigaëlle’s life was in danger and that it was necessary to intervene quickly.
“You can end up dying from having insufficient oxygen intake, for example. It’s an emergency situation,” insists the father.
Despite the high priority of the call, the ambulance sometimes took up to 20 minutes to arrive at Abigaëlle’s bedside, confirms data provided by her health establishment. On average, the little girl waited 17 and a half minutes for the ambulance.
- Listen to the interview with Jean Gagnon, primary care paramedic at Urgences-santé and representative of the prehospital sector at the federal office of the FSSS-CSN on the microphone of Alexandre Dubé via
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However, the Ministry of Health’s ambulance coverage plan judges that the Thibaults’ home should be served by ambulances in eight minutes.
“Yes, the firefighters arrive as first responders, but they can’t do anything,” says Pascal Thibault.
Abigaëlle Thibault suffers from severe epileptic seizures, which required the intervention of an ambulance on several occasions. As she lives in Val-des-Monts, the delays were around 20 minutes.
Marie-Claude Desfossés-Paradis
To relocate
At one point, the family of two even considered leaving the city in hopes of better service.
“We thought quite seriously about moving. “It shouldn’t be the solution to do it,” laments Pascal Thibault, who ultimately chose to stay.
The situation is all the more frustrating as the small family is established a few hundred meters from Gatineau, which has an average response time twice as short as that of Val-des-Monts.
But a bridge out of service since 2009 requires a five-minute detour for ambulance crews, confirms the CISSS de l’Outaouais, which recognizes that the delays in Val-des-Monts are “too long” (read here).
The Montvalois made representations to local elected officials to have this access restored, but in vain.
“I think we are not being heard. People are always throwing the ball back and forth. It’s complicated,” laments the father.
Fortunately, little Abigaëlle, who is now 12 years old, now has access to medication at home to calm the attacks. Transport to hospital is therefore no longer systematically required.
But this does not solve ambulance delays in Val-des-Monts.
“For the safety of my community, it doesn’t make sense. I care a lot about people who are further away than me in Val-des-Monts. It must be hell to wait for the ambulance there,” concludes Mr. Thibault.
– With the collaboration of Philippe Langlois