Respiratory viruses are hitting hard this year. Quebec records nearly 1,000 additional daily visits to emergency departments compared to the same period last year. This was reported by the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, on Wednesday. He warns Quebecers that the situation will remain “difficult” in emergencies over the coming weeks. The peak of influenza should be reached in January.
“It is not just an increase in volume, but in the difficulties of cases,” specified Minister Christian Dubé during a press briefing held Wednesday afternoon in the company of the national director of public health of Quebec, Dr Luc Boileau, as well as the president of the Association of Emergency Medicine Specialists of Quebec, Dr Gilbert Boucher.
More seniors aged 75 and over are showing up in emergency rooms compared to last year: 1,656 on average per day over the last two weeks, compared to 1,429 during the same period in 2022-2023. According to the Dr Butcher, many of them were infected with a respiratory virus and fell multiple times because they were weakened. Impossible, in the context, to return them home.
The average occupancy rate on stretchers was 137% on Wednesday afternoon in Quebec, according to the IndexSanté site. It stood at 236% at the Pierre — Le Gardeur hospital in Terrebonne in Lanaudière, at 213% at the Lakeshore hospital in Pointe-Claire in the west of the island of Montreal, at 200% at the Lasalle hospital, 197% at the Suroît hospital in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield in Montérégie and 196% at the Gatineau hospital.
The Minister of Health indicated that it was necessary to tackle these high occupancy rates by implementing the recommendations of the crisis unit, such as the application of the “overcapacity protocol”, which provides for an increase in the number of patients on the floors when the emergency room is overflowing.
“We often say to ourselves that you know the recipe and it is not applied? I think this is our next job. » The new access coordinator Michel Delamarre has the mandate to identify the “blockers” and have them removed. “Sometimes, it’s the director of professional services who knows that the blocker is such and such. Is he the one with the leverage or can his CEO make a difference? This is what we will follow much closer. »
More details will follow.