Doctors across the country are calling for an overhaul of the health care system as overcrowded emergency rooms struggle to keep up with respiratory viruses.
Health Minister Christian Dube is urging people to avoid emergency rooms if possible and get vaccinated, bringing back unpleasant memories of the pandemic for many in the system.
“Right now the big problem is overcrowding in emergencies,” said Dr. Delphine Remillard Labrosse, vice-president of the Quebec Association of ER Physicians (AMUQ).
In Montreal, the average occupancy rate for stretchers is over 150 percent, and in some hospitals patients are having to wait up to seven hours or longer to see a doctor.
According to AMUQ, the problem is not the number of patients in the waiting room, but rather the time it takes to admit patients to the wards.
“For us who are working in the emergency right now, the problem is actually the overcrowding of the hospital, the system,” Remillard Labrosse said.
On average, patients spend nearly 24 hours on an emergency room gurney while waiting for a bed to become available elsewhere in the system.
“It prevents us from doing our job,” Labrosse said.
It’s a similar story across the country.
“It’s every emergency room, it’s 24 hours a day,” said Kathleen Ross, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).
The CMA says Canada is in a primary care crisis.
“It is past time to transform and rebuild the health care system,” Ross said. “As a frontline provider, I can assure you that people are being marginalized. We are trying very hard to prop up the system that is collapsing around us and continues to burden us in ways that we cannot truly endure.” “
In December, Quebec passed Bill 15, a comprehensive health care reform that overhauls the day-to-day management of the health system.
There are still questions about whether these changes will help reduce wait times and overcrowding.
However, Labrosse said doctors felt like they were finally being heard.
“What gives the team hope is that we have a good understanding of what’s going on,” she said. “We’re not just talking about the emergency, which is the problem. We talk about the system as a problem.”
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