Avoid overcrowding ERs during the holidays if you can, Quebec health officials plead
Global News
Quebecers must be careful this holiday season as respiratory viruses are on the rise and emergency rooms grapple with overcrowding, health officials said Tuesday.
Quebecers should be careful this holiday season as respiratory viruses are on the rise and emergency rooms grapple with overcrowding, health officials said Tuesday.
Dr. Gilbert Boucher, president of the Association des spécialistes en médecine d’urgence du Québec and an emergency physician at Montreal Heart Institute, said patients with viruses that can be treated at home should avoid the hospital.
“The next few weeks will be difficult in our ERs,” Boucher said. “We need everyone to do their part.”
The move comes as a group representing chief doctors in the province’s emergency departments have decried overcrowding in hospitals, saying it is “out of control” and putting patients’ live at risk. In a letter to the health minister last week, the group said ER occupancy rates are among the highest ever recorded in Quebec.
On Tuesday afternoon, health data website Index Santé said the average emergency department occupancy in Quebec was at 136 per cent with 4,778 people in ERs across the province.
The situation was even worse in Montreal-area emergency departments, with the average occupancy hovering at 148 per cent in the city and in Laval, where it topped 180 per cent.
There is no “miracle solution” that will solve the problem, Boucher said, adding that packed ERs are having a hard time treating new patients.
Health Minister Christian Dubé urged patients to consult the 811 health hotline, pharmacies and clinics for non-urgent medical cases in order to free up ERs.