On December 19, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, invited the population to avoid emergencies. This was a call to limit emergency room congestion during the respiratory virus season. On January 10, 2024, he specified that he wanted to reduce emergency attendance rates for cases P4 and P5. Most emergency rooms are overflowing, and there have even been deaths of people waiting to be seen in the emergency room, so we can understand his desire to relieve emergency room congestion.
However, on the side of the health and social services network, the discourse is completely the opposite: we invite the population to use the emergency as often as possible! If you didn’t already know this, you might find it strange to read this, but let me contextualize this information.
Do you know the First Line Access Counter (GAP)? The GAP is an assessment service intended for people without a family doctor which allows, among other things, to obtain an appointment for a medical consultation. GAP can be accessed via a call to 811, option 3.
As this is an assessment window, it is not guaranteed to obtain a medical consultation via the GAP. According to figures from the CIUSSS de la Mauricie–Centre-du-Québec, for example, only 55% of calls to the GAP result in a medical consultation.
There are therefore 45% of the population of this region who, while needing a medical appointment, call to make an appointment and still find themselves without an appointment or family doctor. Part of this population is directly told by the GAP to go… to the emergency room: a case in Lanaudière was also publicized for this purpose. These are people who are sick, cases P4 and P5, who would like to have an appointment with a doctor, but to whom they are told: “Go to the emergency room!” »
It doesn’t make sense to tell people to go to the emergency room when that’s not what they need! I didn’t know that the “first line” of the GAP was emergency!
Fortunately, in Quebec, the population has health rights. When these rights are not respected, such as the right to have access to services, the complaints examination regime (REP) allows us to express our dissatisfaction. The REP allows you to file a complaint about health services and the responsible establishment will offer recommendations aimed at improving services.
As I work and study in health and social services, I talk about the REP to my loved ones and my colleagues and I receive their experience in return. But their feedback is not any more encouraging: people who complain about GAP problems are told by the CISSS and CIUSSS… to go to the emergency room!
I myself have already made a complaint to a health establishment, since I was not able to obtain an appointment via the GAP. I am a P4 or P5 case and I do not want to unnecessarily congest the emergency rooms, but my situation is slowly deteriorating and I would like to consult before my condition requires a visit to the emergency room, precisely. The establishment in my region offered me four solutions: one of them was to have a loved one call the GAP and three of them were to go to the emergency room (three different emergencies were recommended to me) .
So this is what we say on the ground: go to the emergency room for everything and for nothing. Not sick enough to get a medical appointment? Go to the emergency room. Are you complaining because someone refuses to give you a medical appointment? Go to the emergency room.
Perhaps if Minister Dubé took a little interest in what is really being done in health, he would stop telling the population exactly the opposite of what the health and social services network says to this same population.
The government has just implemented the digital GAP. I don’t know this tool yet, but I can’t wait to see the innovative way our government will tell us… to go to the emergency room.