ER well above capacity

BY ALBERT KRAMBERGER

editor@transcontinental.ca

While emergency room overcrowding is common this time of the year, the Lakeshore General Hospital (LGH) is quite busy and is well above the occupancy average reported at 17 Montreal facilities, according to online figures posted by the local health agency.

On Monday, there were 50 patients waiting on stretchers in the Lakeshore's ER ward, over its official capacity of 31, with 16 of those waiting for more than 48 hours. The 161 per cent occupancy rate at the Pointe Claire hospital is above the Montreal average of 127 per cent. The situation Monday was an improvement from last Friday when 64 patients were in Lakeshore's ER, a whopping 206 per cent occupancy rate.

One of main reasons regarding the ongoing overcrowding at the Lakeshore ER is the lack of long-term and acute care beds available in the West Island, said West Island Health and Social Services Centre spokesman Louis-Pascal Cyr.

Between 40 to 80 patients at the LGH, a designated ambulatory care facility with 257 beds, are chronically ill and are waiting for a spot at another facility, he said. A large number of patients in the emergency ward are elderly, he added.

"We're trying to get more resources," he said.

"Many elderly people who have health problems have no alternative but to come to the ER," he added. "We need more long-term care beds. We are also looking at setting up a mobile team to go to (private) seniors' residences."

The West Island has 125 long-term care beds open to the general public at Centre Denis-Benjamin Viger in Île Bizard. "We need 100 more in the West Island," Cyr said.

Health officials often ask people to consider alternatives before coming to the hospital's ER, like seeing their family doctor or visiting a private clinic, such as Statcare located across the street from the LGH. If you don't think your medical condition will warrant a hospital stay, you should consider potential wait times at the ER.

"I heard there were 12 hour waits at the ER last week," Statcare executive director Eleanor Mootoosawmy said Monday. "With us (Statcare), the wait is between one and three hours very often. We have a triage to determine emergency cases.

"We're working together (with the LGH), so we will direct people to the right place," she added.

Statcare is linked with the LGH and works to reduce wait times or visits to the hospital. "If a patient is discharged from the hospital but needs to see a doctor for a follow up a few weeks later, sometimes they are sent to us," Mootoosawmy said.

Statcare, open seven days a week, has a team of 34 doctors that rotate hours. "We're still looking for more doctors," Mootoosawmy said. She expects to add a new doctor at the walk-in clinic this year but added that person will likely be doing shifts elsewhere as well.

As for checking with a family doctor first, it's not an option for many West Islanders. Out of about 216,700 people officially served by the Lakeshore Hospital, an estimated 131,500 don't have a family doctor, according to information provided by the West Island HSSC, which includes the LGH and two local CLSCs.