The lack of manpower imposes a radical solution at the Rivière-Rouge hospital: the emergency rooms are preparing to close their doors from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Patients will now have to travel several dozen kilometers to get to other hospitals in the Laurentians, already among the busiest in the province.
According to our information, the region’s mayors were informed of the reduction in emergency department opening hours on November 10, during a virtual meeting with the CISSS des Laurentides and the local MP. Only a few threads remain to be tied, such as the hiring of a “sleeper doctor” and the salary he will receive. The presence of a “sleeping doctor” at the Rivière-Rouge Multiservice Center is a sine qua non condition for maintaining the fifteen beds in the short-term hospitalization department.
” It’s catastrophic ! It’s terrible! “, says emergency doctor Valérie Homier, a “repair doctor” who provides support to the Rivière-Rouge hospital two to four times a month. Colleagues recently informed her of the upcoming schedule change.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Valérie Homier, emergency doctor, provides support at the Rivière-Rouge hospital two to four times a month.
“Patients will have to drive an hour, even more if there is bad weather or traffic,” laments the DD Homier. “Will this ensure that patients do not complain too much and wait until the next day to seek clarity and consult? It risks bringing people into much more serious conditions,” believes the emergency doctor who also works full time in a large hospital center in Montreal.
The two closest hospitals to Rivière-Rouge are in Mont-Laurier and Sainte-Agathe, respectively 60 km and 80 km away. On Thursday, the emergency rooms of the former were at the top of the province’s hospitals for traffic, with a stretcher occupancy rate of 240%. The Sainte-Agathe multi-service center was not far behind with a rate of 178%.
Already a shortage in fall 2022
Marc L’Heureux, president of the Coalition Santé Laurentides, is concerned about the reduction in healthcare provision in the region, but understands the decision of the CISSS. “The CISSS had no choice. At some point, we are faced with the obvious: there are not enough staff. The status quo was no longer possible,” underlines the man who is prefect of the MRC des Laurentides.
Mr. L’Heureux confirms that the CISSS informed his organization, around ten days ago, of the reduction in emergency opening hours from 24 hours to 12 hours per day. He too was informed that only a few administrative details remain to be finalized before an official announcement.
They have no choice in making this decision, otherwise the hospital will continually be out of service. Breakages will eventually happen during the day and people will bump their noses [à des portes closes].
Marc L’Heureux, president of the Laurentides Health Coalition
“They had no choice but to review their ways of doing things,” said Mr. L’Heureux, recalling that doctors from this hospital made a public outing to denounce the lack of manpower in the fall of 2022. .
To the questions of The Press, the CISSS responds that no decision has yet been made regarding the closure of emergency rooms at night. The CISSS confirms, however, that a rearrangement of the schedule is being studied to counter the problem of staff shortages.
“We are convinced that a possible reorganization will allow us to continue to offer the local population safe and high-quality care, as they are entitled to, according to a model based on their needs,” explains Hugo Morissette, spokesperson. of the CISSS des Laurentides.
“The jobs in great shortage in this sector further from the mainland, therefore with greater recruitment challenges, are among others nursing staff, respiratory therapists and medical imaging technologists,” he specifies. “We would like to confirm that any possible reorganization of emergency services would obviously provide for modalities concerning emergency pre-hospital services as well as multiple service corridors,” adds Mr. Morissette, in an email.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services, for its part, was content to say that discussions are underway with the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec and that “the results of these discussions will be announced shortly.”
6.1 visits per night
Over the past year, the emergency department of the Rivière-Rouge Multiservice Center has welcomed an average of 6.1 patients daily between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m.
“We are told that there is little traffic at the Rivière-Rouge emergency room at night, but there are still people there. Where will this world go now? That’s what’s worrying,” saddens Mr. L’Heureux, of the Coalition Santé Laurentides.
He deplores the recurring lack of funding in the region. After Rivière-Rouge, will the Lachute hospital, which also lacks radiology technicians, have to reduce its opening hours, he wonders.
We reached a wall in Lachute last spring, we reached a wall in Rivière-Rouge, but these are walls that we predicted three years ago when the coalition was born.
Marc L’Heureux, president of the Laurentides Health Coalition
” It was predictable. In the Laurentians, the increase in population is twice as great as the Quebec average,” explains Mr. L’Heureux.
The Dr Gilbert Boucher, president of the Association of Emergency Medicine Specialists of Quebec, believes that closing emergency rooms at night will be “very difficult for the population”. This solution is still preferable to “spontaneous closures in the evenings or nights without warning the population,” explains the doctor who was informed of the upcoming partial closure of the service in Rivière-Rouge.
“It’s always sad to see that, because it means that there will be more pressure on the other centers, and we know that in the Laurentians, it’s not easy,” says the Dr Butcher.
With the collaboration of Alice Girard-Bossé, The Press