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Montreal hospitals bursting at seams
Summertime, and waiting is lengthy
By Charlie Fidelman, Gazette Health ReporterJuly 7, 2009 9:21 PM
MONTREAL - Try not to get sick this month.
Off-season flus and closed beds mean this month is not the ideal time to wind up in hospital.
And annual summer vacations tax a hospital system already suffering from dwindling personnel: There isn?t a floor, unit, operating block or clinic without staff shortages, said Lise Therrien, president of the nurses union at Sacr? Coeur Hospital, which recently went on a recruiting mission for about 100 nurses, student nurses and auxiliary aides.
?We?re at full capacity. But the patients aren?t any less sick,? Therrien said. ?And when you?re down one or two nurses per unit or floor, it shows.?
Luckily, most of the people coming to the ER for swine flu testing (H1N1 influenza virus) are not being hospitalized, said Pascal Mailhot of Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital, which is closing 63 surgery beds and 39 medical beds this summer.
The Montreal Health and Social Service Agency says there will be a total of 471 hospital beds closed this summer to accommodate vacation schedules.
That?s on top of the 550 beds closed indefinitely because of hospital renovations or staffing problems, agency head David Levine said.
?There are always beds closed because of labour difficulties,? he said. ?We are in a real significant situation vis-?-vis the labour pool. This is the problem in health care today. At the moment we are managing as effectively as possible.?
Bed closings are down from last year by 141 beds, he said. That?s not going to help alleviate staffing pressures, but it means that 5,070 beds are available this summer compared with 4,929 last year, he said.
?We close beds that tend to be used for elective surgery,? Levine said. ?Accessibility targets? for surgeries such as heart, cataract, hip and knee should not be affected.
Also, wait times in emergency care are down slightly, he said.
?Overall, can the system respond with the number of beds? Yes.
?If you are sick, go to the hospital; they?ll take care of you,? Levine said.
But some emergency care physicians warn the ERs will be no picnic this summer.
They?ll be jammed with people on stretchers waiting for admission to the wards, said Paul Saba, an emergency room doctor at Lachine Hospital.
Evaluations and surgeries are already delayed because of reductions in personnel, said Louis Dagenais of St. Luc Hospital at the Centre hospitalier de l?Universit? de Montr?al, which has the most bed closings with 117.
McGill University Health Centre is closing 55 beds.
?We?re on 24/7; the ambulances will come and patients will wait,? Dagenais said, comparing the ER to a hotel lobby during high season.
?If you were a hotel and your rooms were full, would you increase the size of your lobby??
cfidelman@thegazette.canwest.com
Summertime, and waiting is lengthy
By Charlie Fidelman, Gazette Health ReporterJuly 7, 2009 9:21 PM
MONTREAL - Try not to get sick this month.
Off-season flus and closed beds mean this month is not the ideal time to wind up in hospital.
And annual summer vacations tax a hospital system already suffering from dwindling personnel: There isn?t a floor, unit, operating block or clinic without staff shortages, said Lise Therrien, president of the nurses union at Sacr? Coeur Hospital, which recently went on a recruiting mission for about 100 nurses, student nurses and auxiliary aides.
?We?re at full capacity. But the patients aren?t any less sick,? Therrien said. ?And when you?re down one or two nurses per unit or floor, it shows.?
Luckily, most of the people coming to the ER for swine flu testing (H1N1 influenza virus) are not being hospitalized, said Pascal Mailhot of Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital, which is closing 63 surgery beds and 39 medical beds this summer.
The Montreal Health and Social Service Agency says there will be a total of 471 hospital beds closed this summer to accommodate vacation schedules.
That?s on top of the 550 beds closed indefinitely because of hospital renovations or staffing problems, agency head David Levine said.
?There are always beds closed because of labour difficulties,? he said. ?We are in a real significant situation vis-?-vis the labour pool. This is the problem in health care today. At the moment we are managing as effectively as possible.?
Bed closings are down from last year by 141 beds, he said. That?s not going to help alleviate staffing pressures, but it means that 5,070 beds are available this summer compared with 4,929 last year, he said.
?We close beds that tend to be used for elective surgery,? Levine said. ?Accessibility targets? for surgeries such as heart, cataract, hip and knee should not be affected.
Also, wait times in emergency care are down slightly, he said.
?Overall, can the system respond with the number of beds? Yes.
?If you are sick, go to the hospital; they?ll take care of you,? Levine said.
But some emergency care physicians warn the ERs will be no picnic this summer.
They?ll be jammed with people on stretchers waiting for admission to the wards, said Paul Saba, an emergency room doctor at Lachine Hospital.
Evaluations and surgeries are already delayed because of reductions in personnel, said Louis Dagenais of St. Luc Hospital at the Centre hospitalier de l?Universit? de Montr?al, which has the most bed closings with 117.
McGill University Health Centre is closing 55 beds.
?We?re on 24/7; the ambulances will come and patients will wait,? Dagenais said, comparing the ER to a hotel lobby during high season.
?If you were a hotel and your rooms were full, would you increase the size of your lobby??
cfidelman@thegazette.canwest.com