Parents sending their children to school this week should be thankful that they are not sending them or anyone else in the family to one of Quebec’s hospital emergency rooms.
The website Index Sante reported on Wednesday that ERs across the province are running at 111 per cent capacity, with Montreal at 136 per cent.
Quebec ERs have not been below 100 per cent capacity since Aug. 18 when they were at 98 per cent.
Two hospitals in Montreal and one in Lanaudiere have over 200 per cent capacity.
Montreal ERs bursting
LaSalle Hospital is the lone non-specialist hospital with an ER capacity of under 100 per cent at 73 per cent.
The MUHC Royal Victoria Hospital (224 per cent) and Jewish General Hospital (223 per cent) are at the other end of that spectrum.
At the Royal Vic, 11 patients have been waiting for over 48 hours on stretchers and 33 for a day. There is an average wait time of just under 12 hours to see a doctor and a 32-hour wait time on a stretcher.
Quebec’s Health Ministry reports a stretcher occupany rate of 221 per cent at the Royal Vic.
Forty patients at the Jewish have been on a stretcher waiting for a doctor for over a day and 15 for over two days. The stretcher occupany rate at the Jewish is 221 per cent, with a four-hour wait time to in the waiting room and 16-hour wait time for a stretcher.
The Montreal General Hospital (161 per cent), Lakeshore Hospital (158 per cent), and Verdun Hospital (150 per cent) are also very busy hospitals that patients may want to avoid.
Other Montreal hospitals emergency room capacities:
- Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hosptial – 148 per cent
- Sacre-Coeur-de-Montreal Hospital – 146 per cent
- Fleury Hospital – 133 per cent
- Santa Cabrini Hospital – 121 per cent
- University de Montreal Hospital – 120 per cent
- Sainte Justine Hosptial – 119 per cent
- St. Mary Hospital – 118 per cent
- Albert-Prevost Hospital – 111 per cent
- Notre-Dame Hospital – 109 per cent
Other busy emergency rooms
Montreal is not the only region in the province with bursting ERs.
All eight hospitals in the Monteregie are over 100 per cent capacity, with the Suroit Hospital (172) in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Anna Laberge Hospital (153 per cent) in Chateautuay, and Pierre Boucher Hospital (151 per cent) in Longueuil the busiest.
Launaudiere’s two hospitals – Parphilia-Ferland Hospital (218 per cent) and Pierre-le Gardeur Hospital (172 per cent) per cent – are also well above capacity.
Saint-Jerome Hospital (174 per cent) and Cite-de-la-Sante Hospital in Laval (169 per cent) should also be avoided.