December 19, 2023
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 the 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.
Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/10179889/quebec-hospital-ers-overcrowding-update-december-19-2023/