At a press conference in Montreal, Minister Dubé said he hoped more people with questions about their health would call 811 first, rather than going straight to the emergency room.
This would allow patients to be better routed to the appropriate services when needed.
“One in two people who go to the emergency room could have gone elsewhere. »
— A quote from Christian Dubé, Quebec Minister of Health
According to Mr. Dubé, approximately 350,000 Quebecers end up in emergency rooms each month.
The Minister of Health also wanted more appointments to be offered in general practitioner groups and in children’s clinics.
He then announced that Quebec plans to open two clinics run by specialized nurses within a few weeks; These would be set up in the CUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal area and in the Centre-Sud district.
Eventually, the Legault government wants to free up 1,700 beds in CHSLDs, in rehabilitation clinics or even in interim camps, so that the many patients waiting for a place can leave the hospitals.
According to Christian Dubé, 58% of these additional beds will still be installed in the coming days.
A government crisis team
Minister Dubé last week announced the creation of a cell to overcome the crisis in emergencies. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services and chief executives from Greater Montreal facilities sit on the committee, which met for the first time last Thursday.
Members of this group include Dr. Mauril Gaudreault, President of the College of Physicians; dr Shannon Fraser, Medical Director of the Command Center of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal; Delphine Alberto, Head Nurse for Emergencies at Santa Cabrini Hospital; dr Pierre Gfeller, President and CEO, McGill University Health Center; and dr Lucie Opatrny, Deputy Assistant Minister at the Ministry of Health.
The minister specified that the composition and scope of this unit will evolve over the coming weeks and months.
The primary mission will be sacrificed, officials say
After an initial appeal last June, Quebec emergency leaders returned to the charge earlier on Tuesday: It’s important to better allocate hospital resources to manage emergency overcrowding, they say in a letter to the CEOs of healthcare facilities in Quebec and finally to Minister Dubé.
Otherwise, officials said, emergency departments could no longer perform their primary job of treating people with unstable or even life-threatening conditions in a timely manner.
United in the Regroupement des chefs d’urgence du Québec, these emergency chiefs also argue that the current congestion in Quebec’s emergency departments is a security breach for the population, further compromising access to emergency stretchers for the sickest patients and compromising the quality of care for patients who are already in the emergency room.
During a visit to Tout un matin at the ICI premiere, Dr. Judy Morris, President of the Quebec Association of Emergency Physicians, notes that the ER occupancy rate remains above 100% and has been high since last spring.
“We used to see spikes, but now it’s holding up. »
– A quote from Dr. Judy Morris, President of the Quebec Association of Emergency Physicians
according to dr Morris attributes much of the emergency department’s overcrowding to a lack of available beds in the hospital’s various departments or on the long-term care side.
This causes all kinds of delays in care and treatment, she added.
According to the letter, however, the overcrowding of hospitals not only affects care for the patients who need it most, but also creates hostile physical and psychological conditions for hospital staff. Emergency response teams end up suffering moral pain and suffering alongside a general sense of helplessness.
according to dr Morris, the situation is that for several months, about 13 or 14% of hospital patients no longer need their bed but are waiting for long-term care that is not immediately available.
The observation is the same whether it is the writers of the letter or Dr. Morris acts: With bed closures in specialist departments and in long-term care due to a lack of resources, a domino effect is occurring, leading to emergency rooms being staffed well beyond their capacity. Partly with not only stretchers in the corridors, but downright bedridden patients in the waiting room.
Which solutions?
In their letter, the emergency managers demand in particular that the lack of staff should no longer be a reason to close beds in the nursing stations or on the long-term care side.
Signatories are also calling for an end to the practice of diverting ambulances to the emergency rooms of less-busy hospitals, which they say is causing overcapacity problems at those same hospitals.
Finally, among other measures, we also propose to set up a public information program designed to inform the population about the actual emergency capacity of an area and adjust user expectations.
These demands are very similar to those put forward last June, which also recommended using day surgery units, recovery rooms and ambulances to accommodate patients in an overcrowded situation or to wait on hospital floors for a bed.
The same proposed solutions are also supported by the Association of Emergency Nurses of Quebec and its President, Guillaume Fontaine.
The latter recalls that risk and problem management is generally focused on emergencies.
It’s a small bottleneck, he says.
Mr Fontaine marginally regretted the loss of expertise due to the departure of nurses and emergency managers. It takes three years to train such a specialized nurse, he recalled, since arriving at the emergency room.