Quebec’s emergency rooms are busy year-round, but this summer, they’re seeing more people compared to the same time last year.
According to a report from La Presse, the number of hospital visits that didn’t require a stay is almost 10 per cent higher this year than in the summer of 2023.
July also proved to be especially busy — between July 1 and Aug. 5, outpatient visits increased by eight per cent compared to the same period last year.
According to Quebec’s website showing the situation in emergency rooms, on Thursday morning, there were just over 1,100 people waiting to see a doctor in a Quebec ER — with nearly 3,900 people in total in emergency departments.
At the Royal Victoria Hospital, part of the MUHC, the stretch occupancy rate was the highest at 176 per cent capacity, with the Jewish General Hospital at 168 per cent.
On Tuesday, Quebec ERs received about 11,000 patients — 3,000 of them were placed on a stretcher and 800 were redirected to other services.
Of the 7,000 patients that consulted the ER and were able to go home after receiving care, 1,500 of them left before even being seen by a doctor.
Experts say that these patients are most often people with lower priority, non-urgent cases — that the sickest patients get taken care of.
What might explain the rise in ER visits is the fact that COVID-19 continues to spread this summer in Quebec — with the positivity rate was 18.5 per cent in the week of Aug. 4.
As of Wednesday, 113 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19, while the remaining 883 infected patients were hospitalized for other reasons.
Other viruses, such as gastroenteritis, are also present, as they are every summer. Injuries that occur during sports or outdoor activities are as numerous as usual.