The 811 phone line is now available to all parents in Quebec after Montrealers were granted initial access to schedule an appointment with a doctor for an emergency situation for a child.
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This line will be available across Quebec from Wednesday after seeing a first expansion in the Outaouais and the Laurentians, Health Minister Christian Dubé indicated during a crowd at Charles Le Moyne Hospital in Longueuil. .
Nearly 87 additional nurses made themselves available to facilitate this nationwide rollout via the I Contribute platform.
“We would still take it now that people know the program will go beyond December 31,” the minister added. Each person that comes means more calls than we can take on 811 and reduces our wait time.
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This “one call, one service” measure was reintroduced at the beginning of November last year after the service line was switched off in April to enable better availability of the first line.
This was one of the first solutions recommended by the crisis team to reduce overflows in the emergency room in the short term.
In a month and a half, thousands of children have received an appointment at the clinic instead of going to the emergency room.
Several Specialty Nursing Hospitals (SNPs) have also recently opened to relieve emergency departments, particularly in the greater Montreal area and in Saguenay.
“Yes, in an emergency, it is difficult at the moment, but we can reduce the impact of the three viruses a little,” Mr Dubé said.
A “difficult holiday season”
The health minister reminded that the holiday season for emergencies in the province will be difficult due to the increase in contacts in the next few days.
“We have to lend a hand [au personnel soignant]because we know there will be extra traffic after the holiday season,” he explained.
He therefore encouraged Quebecers to respect the public health recommendations of the past few days.
Here are these 5 clinics:
- Notre Dame Hospital;
- Verdun CLSC;
- Chicoutimi Hospital;
- Laval (IPS Clinical School in the University of Montreal School of Nursing);
- CLSC Olivier Guimond