Beds closed, operating rooms in slow motion, deliveries misplaced: Doctors complain that the blatant shortage of staff is paralyzing the health network like never before. Meanwhile, waiting lists are breaking records.
• Also read: Several regions now report actual ER wait time
The journal has identified all service failures on the network (see below). First observation: All regions are affected.
- At the Saint-Jérôme hospital, 81 beds in two departments have been closed for almost a year.
- At Lachine Hospital, two out of three operating rooms are closed.
- In the Outaouais, only 34% of the region’s hospital operating rooms are used.
Although fall is typically a time when the network is in full swing, staffing shortages are slowing things down significantly.
“We depend on so many staff, we need doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, orderlies… It’s a chain and every missing link, it all falls apart,” explains Dr. Lior Bibas, a cardiologist who works in the intensive care unit of the Pierre Boucher hospital in Longueuil. As a doctor, I am discouraged by the situation. I don’t see how we’re getting out of this. »
A breaking point
Waiting records are now adding up:
- 160,684 Quebecers are awaiting surgery in Quebec
- 17,691 seniors hope for home care
- 4,381 seniors are waiting for a place in a CHSLD
Network degradation has reached a “wall,” according to the Quebec Doctors for the Public Regime (MQRP) group.
“Right now there is a breaking point, we have reached an unprecedented situation,” notes Dr. Karyne Pelletier. We let a problem grow and rot. It’s difficult to manage and it will cost more. »
Too far away to be treated
With the Laurentians, the blatant lack of staff makes the situation critical in several places. According to the Coalition Santé Laurentides, infrastructure is the same as it was 30 years ago, but the population has practically doubled.
“My concern is that people are not getting treatment. If it’s too far, people won’t go. The disease can get worse, it will cost the healthcare system even more,” complains the president of this coalition, Marc L’Heureux.
according to dr According to Pelletier, the solution is not new structures, but more staff to increase the public network.
“We’re multiplying the physical spaces rather than occupying what’s already there,” she said. We are discouraged that the proposed solutions always want to reinvent the wheel, like creating a new mini-hospital [privé]. We have the premises, but the working conditions need to be improved in order to keep employees. »
– With the collaboration of Hugo Duchaine and Louis Deschênes
The newspaper identified all health network failures with Integrated Health and Social Services Centers (CISSS). Here is the list of everything that is currently closed.
Saguenay – Lac Saint Jean
Some services are modulated according to the available staff
- Dolbeau-Mistassini Hospital
Occasional obstetrics closures at weekends - Jonquière Hospital
1 operating room closed 3 days a week - Alma Hospital
1 operating room closed 3 days a week - Roberval Hospital
1 operating room
national capital
- CHU of Quebec
5 out of 48 operating rooms
Mauricie Center of Quebec
- Hospital Center Trois-Rivières
27 beds
2 operating rooms - Hotel-Dieu d’Arthabaska (Victoriaville)
4 beds
1 operating room - Shawinigan Hospital
1 operating room - Sainte Croix Hospital (Drummondville)
8 beds - La Tuque Hospital
2 closed cardiac monitoring beds - Fortierville
ER closes at 8pm instead of midnight (waiting for new doctors to arrive)
estria
- All operating rooms in the region are working at 80%
- 42 closed beds
- Coaticook Hospital
Emergency partially open (8am to 10pm)
Montreal
- Neurological Institute (MUHC)
1 to 2 of 4 operating rooms - Royal Victoria (MUHC)
1 out of 10 operating rooms - Lachine Hospital
2 out of 3 operating rooms
Emergency closed to ambulances from 7:30pm to 7:30am. - Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital
29 beds
3 intensive care beds - Santa Cabrini
25 beds
3 intensive care beds - LaSalle Hospital
Closure of 4 out of 12 beds in neonatal care. Transfers of women about to give birth are planned whenever possible.
1 of 4 operating rooms
Decrease in external physiotherapy services (5 days a week). Users will be transferred to Lakeshore Hospital.
2 out of 8 beds in the intensive care unit - St Mary’s Hospital
2 out of 7 beds in the intensive care unit
2 of 4 beds in the coronary ward - Lakeside Hospital (Pointe-Claire)
Closure of one operating room reserved for cataracts (out of 7 in total). Patients are sent to a private clinic. - Montreal Heart Institute
Partial closure of 1 of 3 electrophysiology rooms
“Sporadic” cancellations of surgeries - Jewish General Hospital
1 of 13 operating rooms
6 out of 30 intensive care beds
8 hospital beds - Sacred Heart Hospital
2 out of 10 operating rooms - Jean Talon Hospital
2 out of 5 operating rooms
Outaouais
- “Precarious” situation in several imaging departments, laboratories and nursing stations
- Hospital operating rooms are 34% in use. After all, agreements with private surgical clinics allow an activity of 88%.
- 5 closed intensive care beds
- 36% of medical/surgical beds are unavailable
Pontiac Hospital (Shawville)
No obstetrics since February 2020
Gatineau Cancer Center
Partial suspension of the radiotherapy service for residents of Abitibi-Témiscamingue
north coast
- Port Cartier Hospital
Emergency closed for patients classified as non-urgent between 20:00 and 08:00 - Forestville
Department of Partial Radiology
Gaspesie
- Sainte-Anne-des-Monts Hospital
Obstetrics: a nurse on site from 8 am to 4 pm Patients are attended to by the ER or sent to Matane
Chaudiere-Appalachia
- Hotel-Dieu of Levis
2 of 8 operating rooms
laval
- Health City (Laval)
Downtime for opioid antagonist therapy.
Lanaudiere
- 48 closed beds in CHSLDs
- Joliette Hospital
2 operating rooms
37 beds - Pierre Le Gardeur
2 operating rooms
Laurentians
- St. Hieronymus Hospital
2 of 8 operating rooms
81 beds in two medical units
Medical imaging and scopy: transferred to another location, except in emergencies - Saint-Eustache Hospital
1 of 2 heart ultrasound rooms
1 of 7 operating rooms
3 of 12 intensive care beds - Rivière Rouge Hospital
2 intensive care beds
Night Medical Imaging - Mont Laurier Hospital
10 to 14 out of 42 beds in the medical ward
3 children’s beds
Mammography (except emergencies)
assembly control
- Charles Le Moyne Hospital (Longueuil)
3 out of 10 operating rooms
30 beds - Haut-Richelieu Hospital (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu)
38 beds - Suroît Hospital (Salaberry-de-Valleyfield)
1 of 4 operating rooms
These CISSSs did not respond to the journal:
- national capital
- Bas-Saint-Laurent (rejection)
- Abitibi Temiscamingue
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