Improvement: number of patients out of time in surgery
We are far from being finished, but all the same, the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS has managed to reduce its waiting list of late surgical patients.
A late patient is a user who has been waiting for an operation for more than a year. There were 1,514 at the end of 2023 and 962 at mid-November 2024, the latest data available on the dashboard of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS).
The CIUSSS’s target, however, is to reach the number of 193 by March 31, 2025. This would represent a reduction of almost 80% of the current number.
Despite everything, certain specialties, particularly urology, are having difficulty catching up in terms of late patients, as reported The Tribune earlier this year.
As for the number of patients waiting for surgery in Estrie, the number remained stable this year at around 12,000 people.
There are fewer patients waiting for surgery for more than a year in Estrie. (Jessica Garneau/Archives La Tribune)
Deterioration: waiting for services at the DPJ
At the end of December 2023, it took 80 days on average for a young person to receive an evaluation from the DPJ in Estrie after a report regarding their situation had been accepted. By the end of 2024, this number has almost doubled, reaching 157 days.
The target set by the MSSS is 22 days. There was no shortage of stories this year to illustrate the impacts that these delays could have.
In October, the director of youth protection in Estrie, Stéphanie Jetté, explained that the main cause explaining these delays was the labor shortage. At that time, “around 45% of the staff” were missing from the Estrian DPJ.
Stabilization: overall emergency situation
Users who go to emergency rooms in Estrie will have had essentially the same experience throughout the year.
The wait before being treated fluctuated slightly between 3 hours and 4 hours during the year, while the average duration of an outpatient stay in the emergency room, which therefore does not require being seen on a stretcher, stood between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.
The rate of stays on stretchers of more than 24 hours in the emergency room was between 20% and 25% for the whole year. The average length of stay on a stretcher in the emergency room regularly fluctuated between 1 and 2 p.m., but briefly exceeded 4 p.m. in October.
The rate of stays on a stretcher of more than 24 hours in the emergency room has stabilized. (Jessica Garneau/Archives La Tribune)
Improvement: waiting at the first line access counter (GAP)
If it took more than 85 hours in January 2024 for the processing of a GAP request to result in a medical appointment, this wait dropped to 16 hours at the end of the year.
Note that large fluctuations took place during the year. The wait, for example, reached around 12 hours in September before rising to more than 50 hours in October and November.
The peak of the wait was reached in March, with 91 hours. Besides the peaks and troughs of waves, the wait stabilized between 36 hours and 48 hours for good parts of the year.
Simple and rapid access to GAP is increasingly necessary, while the number of new family doctors remains insufficient in the regions.
Deterioration: access to a specialist doctor
Unlike surgery, more and more patients are waiting for more than a year to see a specialist doctor in Estrie.
Between the beginning and the end of 2024, 4,000 patients outside of deadlines were added to the waiting lists for the different specialties. There are a total of 34,351.
The specialty with the most patients waiting is otolaryngology. Of the 6,331 people waiting for services there, 4,623 have been there for more than a year.
The number of users waiting out of time and on time also increased in the last year, from 44,787 to 52,792.
