Thread by @Aaron_Derfel

1) Yes, I'm belaboring the point, but this needs attention. For three days in a row, Lakeshore General Hospital's emergency room has been the most overcrowded of any hospital in the city. This, despite the publication of my series on rising deaths there.

2) The Lakeshore ER was filled to 203 per cent capacity Tuesday morning, with 16 patients languishing in its corridors for at least 48 hours. As I've written before, such conditions are far from safe for patients, despite the best efforts of medical staff. montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…

3) This morning, I received a text from an internal medicine and intensive care specialist. This is what she wrote: "I don't think people realize how much we have been pushing the limits of what is acceptable for the past 3 years."

4) Some of my ER sources are so stressed that they have taken to "self-medicating" with wine and Clonazepam, an anti-anxiety drug. This is the cumulative impact of three years of daily ER stress in the #pandemic.

5) In late October, Health Minister Christian Dubé created a "crisis cell" to address ER overcrowding in Montreal. Judging from Tuesday morning's ER stats, it appears little progress has been achieved, despite Dubé's best efforts.
lapresse.ca/actualites/san…

6) The crisis cell did succeed in reducing ER overcrowding slightly at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, where nearly 100 staff threatened to resign en masse in January, and where politicians held revolving news conferences outside its entrance.

7) But at 109% capacity, Maisonneuve-Rosemont was still overcrowded Tuesday morning. The government target is 85% capacity, and rarely do city ERs fall below that percentage. Jewish General Hospital's ER was filled to 164% capacity Tuesday, Royal Victoria Hospital's ER to 152%.

8) ER minimizers like to point out things have always been this way. Yes, I know. When I started on the health beat in 1998, ERs were congested. But there's a difference now: patients are older and much sicker, and ER staff are much more stressed after 3 years of the #pandemic.

9) In this sense, the ER crisis in Quebec and the rest of Canada is unprecedented. ERs are also overburdened in other countries like England. But it's not by engaging in whataboutism and saying that things have always been this way that the problem will go away. It won't.

10) "We also achieve small miracles every day but with fewer resources," my ICU and internal medicine specialist texted me. Still, just because that's true should not make it acceptable for the authorities. End of thread.

montrealgazette.com/_preview/news/…