Since Tuesday, rapid tests have been administered to symptomatic people in line at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal screening center. The objective: reduce queues and make up for the shortage of personnel.
In the entrance to the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, Tuesday afternoon, a line sprawls out over a hundred meters. Some people have been hanging around for a good hour, nothing compared to the wait time of the last few days.
Since Saturday, the CIUSSS du Center-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal has recorded an increase in the demand for screening, on the sidelines of the surge in cases. “Saturday and Sunday, we had around 1,300 screenings. Monday, 1600 screenings. We could not continue like that, we had to act, ”said CIUSSS spokesperson Jean Nicolas Aubé on the spot.
To meet demand, rapid tests have been added to the arsenal of the largest screening clinic at the CIUSSS. The tests are available to people in the queue who are showing symptoms.
If the result is negative, the person is free to quit, but will need to watch for symptoms over the next few days. Positive cases will need to stay in the clinic for an official PCR test.
The whole thing does not take more than a quarter of an hour.
At a press conference, the Minister of Health Christian Dubé clarified that we are proceeding in this way because “there is a lack of personnel”. “That’s why we ask people to come and give us a hand quickly with I contribute. If we have people, we will send a little for vaccination, a little for screening, ”he said.
The strategy, which had not been deployed in Montreal so far, could be implemented in other clinics, added Jean Nicolas Aubé. “If it works well, and it seems to be working well for the moment, we could apply this way of doing things tomorrow in our other CIUSSS screening centers. ”