For this day of December 16, paramedics had to respond to 95 calls requiring transport. Of these, 45 patients were brought to Hôtel-Dieu, including 21 between noon and 4 p.m., the communications department of the CIUSSS de l'Estrie-CHUS explains.
“Never seen before,” agrees the president of the Union of Paramedics of Estrie – CSN, Samuel Côté.
“It was about two hours of waiting at Hôtel-Dieu for a patient in an ambulance to get a bed. It puts pressure on the teams and, during this time, there were calls for priorities 3 and 4 [priorité 0 étant le plus urgent] who were waiting,” explains Mr. Côté.
45 minute target
You should know that an ambulance cannot leave the emergency room until the patient inside is admitted. The ministerial waiting time target is 45 minutes.
If other calls arise during the wait and too many ambulances are in the emergency room, vehicles from other areas must be called in to relieve them. This was the case on Monday, when two teams from East Angus and one from Windsor, in particular, had to join Sherbrooke, which left their own zone uncovered.
Two ambulance vehicles also had to be added at short notice in Sherbrooke during this day, confirms the CIUSSS.
Up to ten ambulances were waiting simultaneously at the Hôtel-Dieu in Sherbrooke on Monday. In this photo taken in the afternoon, we can see at least eight of them, seven outside and one in the garage. Sherbrooke has nine day ambulances on its territory, normally. (Samuel Côté/SPEC)
While he recognizes that Monday was “extreme,” Samuel Côté says he sees a trend, in recent months, of using ambulances from other areas to support Sherbrooke.
The same goes for the employer of Sherbrooke paramedics, the Estrie Ambulance Workers Cooperative (CTAE), which corroborates the figures put forward by the union.
Its representative, Keven Archambault, notes that since the removal of three vehicles added occasionally this summer in Sherbrooke, “the impact is being felt”.
Not luxury
Remember that the CTAE, the union and the CIUSSS are asking the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) to add, in particular, two ambulance vehicles to Sherbrooke. On a normal shift, the sector has nine ambulances on its territory.
“We saw patients who were suffering on Monday because their call was less urgent and we lacked vehicles. We are not looking forward to better days, because there are always more calls during the holiday season. Last year, the CIUSSS added two vehicles for this period, but we only have one this year,” notes Samuel Côté.
Samuel Côté, president of the Estrie Paramedics Union – CSN (Archives La Tribune)
“So we see that it is not a luxury, our request for two additional permanent vehicles. Examples of patients waiting because there are no more vehicles in Sherbrooke, we see them every day.”
The MSSS has still not responded to the joint request from regional paramedical stakeholders.
However, Keven Archambault, who is head of the communications and health and well-being division at the CTAE, says he is “optimistic” that the ministry will accede to the demands of the common front that has been created in the region.
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