South Shore doctors sound alarm after patients wait on stretchers for 5 days

Several patients were stuck waiting up to 100 hours on stretchers that lined the hallways of a Châteauguay, Que. emergency room earlier this week, with some waiting up to five days to see a doctor. 

Though the situation at Hôpital Anna-Laberge has since been resolved, doctors at the hospital are sounding the alarm that overcrowding in local hospitals will only get worse if something doesn't change. 

"It's been difficult in Châteauguay for several months," said Dr. Caroline Bourassa-Fulop, who works in the hospital's emergency room. 

"But it's a situation that's getting worse and worse." 

This latest incident started last Wednesday, when the Anna-Laberge hospital, part of the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) de la Montérégie-Ouest, was at over 200 per cent capacity. 

"Patients spent four to five days on stretchers," said Bourassa-Fulop.

"I have a patient that waited 105 hours. When you calculate it, that's almost five days," said Dr. Christine Thanh, who has worked in the Anna-Laberge emergency ward since 2012. 

Bourassa-Fulop said that, on top of a lack of doctors at the hospital, several of the hospital's beds are occupied by seniors waiting transfer to long-term healthcare facilities or residences. 

"At the moment, on the floors, about 20 per cent of patients occupying beds are waiting for [long-term care]," added Thanh. 

An 'exceptional' situation 

Philippe Besombes, associate director general of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest, called the situation at Anna-Laberge hospital this week "exceptional and difficult." 

He said that increasing at-home care services for elderly patients has helped mitigate some of the region's overcrowded hospitals. This has helped limit the need for emergency hospital visits and sped up the release of elderly patients, he explained. 

He said the regional health board has increased at-home care services by 40% over the last year. 

Anna-Laberge isn't the only hospital dealing with overcrowding though. The Montérégie region is in dire need of another hospital, which is slated to be built in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area by 2027. 

"For the well-being of the population, we need to act before 2027," cautioned Bourassa-Fulop. 

Bourassa-Fulop said he would like to see short-term solutions, such as hiring more doctors, implemented.