The urgency of the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital in Laval crossed a critical threshold on April 28 and 29, according to documents obtained by VAT NEW.
This situation would have jeopardized the safety of patients as well as that of the nursing staff, alerts the union, which describes the situation as “dangerous”.
Between the evening of April 28 and the night of the 29th, the emergency overflowed with patients, far exceeding its capacity. Waiting times to consult a doctor exceeded 10 hours.
In the absence of civilians, patients were redirected to the waiting room, and several ambulances had to be diverted.
TVA Nouvelles has obtained nine incident reports qualified as “dangerous situations”, written by doctors and nurses for their superiors.
These documents describe a marked degradation of the conditions of care.
Several hours of waiting
At sorting, 18 patients had to wait up to 2:30 before being evaluated by a nurse-a period far beyond the provincial standard which fixes this waiting time within 10 minutes.
Priority 2 patients (P2), suffering from serious health problems, waited for more than four hours before seeing a doctor, while the ministerial directive provides for treatment within the hour.
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A P2 patient is a case deemed “very urgent”. It must be taken care of quickly. They are people with strong chest pain, severe respiratory difficulty, stroke signs, etc.
Patients in distress
This is the case of a suffering patient, who has a diaphoretic with intense abdominal pain. She was lying in the waiting room for a reassessment and was installed in the corridor on a stretcher.
However, according to an internal policy, she should not find herself there, because she had not been seen by the doctor.
Hospital employees judge the situation particularly worrying. At one point, nearly 50 patients were waiting in the waiting room, without the presence of a resource person to support the medical teams.
Risk for patients’ life
A dozen patients were waiting for a stretcher, and some unstable cases were left on wheelchairs, for lack of civilians. Patients requiring continuous monitoring have even been returned to the waiting room.
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Among the reported cases is a P2 patient with a heart rate of 140 beats per minute, which remained without medical care for 10 hours. Three other patients awaiting a heart instructor had serious conditions: one with ataxia and suspicion of intracranial hemorrhage, another with pulmonary embolism and a third with cardiac history.
All waited for several hours before being connected to a heart rate. According to the union, this situation has created a risk for the life of its patients.
A critical situation has also occurred in module C, dedicated to mental health. Two CEPI (candidates for the exercise of the nursing profession) had to manage the department alone during the break of a nurse. A patient then became aggressive and required physical and chemical compression, but no qualified personnel was available to intervene, exposing employees to a serious risk.
“Unacceptable” situation
All these events occurred in 16 hours. For the president of the nursing union, inhalotherapists and auxiliary nurses from Laval (ISIAL-CSQ), this situation is unacceptable and very dangerous for Laval patients. According to Déreck Cyr, everything stems from health cuts.
“We cut 27 overflowing beds where we could put these patients. The major problem, by cutting these beds, there is a direct impact in an emergency. New beds should be created on the floors and bringing over the overflows, ”explains Déreck Cyr, president of SIIIAL-CSQ.
Déreck Cyr adds that bed management at the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital in Laval is “improvisation” and that waiting time in emergency and on a stretcher continues to increase.
“It is time for the CAQ government to stop hiding behind Santé Québec. That Messrs Legault and Dubé make real decisions. Following the nine reports, the DSI (Nursing Department) decided to open an overflow the same morning to unclog. This made it possible to decrease, but workers had to denounce. Otherwise, managers do nothing, ”adds Mr. Cyr.
Remember that New VAT had reported that a 69-year-old man died after eleven o’clock in the waiting room at the Cité-de-Santé hospital in Laval. The investigation is still in progress.
Reaction to come from the Cisss de Laval.
