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Aaron Derfel Profile picture
@Aaron_Derfel
Apr 19 • 9 tweets • 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1) Breaking: A year-over-year comparison of overcrowding in Montreal's hospital emergency rooms continues to show the situation is worsening. A year ago on this date, all the city's ERs were filled to 119% capacity. Today, the percentage has surged to 144. Image
2) A year ago on this date, no Montreal ER was overcrowded above 200%. Today, the Royal Victoria Hospital's occupancy rate is a staggering 242%; its average ER stay on a stretcher is 48 hours and 27 minutes. Both stats are the highest by far in the metropolis. Image
3) Close behind, the Jewish General's ER is at 225% occupancy and the Montreal General's is at 213%. At the Lakeshore General, the average ER stay is nearly 48 hours. As I wrote recently, lengthy ER stays are associated with a higher mortality rate.
montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
4) It bears repeating this unprecedented ER overcrowding in Montreal is occurring despite the fact Health Minister Christian Dubé set up a "cellule de crise" nearly six months ago to try to fix the problem. Of late, however, Dubé is focusing his energies on creating Santé Québec.
5) I'm reporting these publicly available stats even though I'm booked off work this week, because I strongly believe this issue needs to be kept alive, and is in the public interest. End of mini thread.
montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
6) ADDENDUM 1: The public chart below shows at the Royal Vic ER Wednesday, it took an average of 6 hours and 17 minutes to be seen by a doctor after triage. Canadian guidelines recommend the least urgent ER patient wait no longer than 2 hours to be seen by a doctor after triage. Image
7) ADDENDUM 2: What this suggests is that some patients will likely leave the Royal Vic ER in frustration without every being examined by a doctor — a known, feared phenomenon in emergency medicine, and a risky situation for some individuals.
8) ADDENDUM 3: The chart below, also publicly available, shows the steady rise in Quebec's ER stretcher occupancy rate on the most recent date available, April 17, compared with the corresponding dates in the previous four years. Since the #pandemic started, the trend is up. Image
9) ADDENDUM 4: And as I've already reported in the Montreal Gazette, these ER numbers are going up as ER staffing goes down. At St. Mary's Hospital, the ER staff now say a prayer before each shift treating patients who are not only older but sicker.
montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…

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More from @Aaron_Derfel

Aaron Derfel Profile picture
Apr 18
1) The McGill University Health Centre appears to have tried to muzzle one of its own doctors for speaking out against its decision to close Lachine Hospital's emergency room overnight. Excellent column by my colleague @AllisonHanes.
montrealgazette.com/opinion/column…
2) The MUHC — Quebec's largest hospital network — had already tried to muzzle the co-authors of a report on systemic racism last fall from speaking to the media. It was only when I wrote about this that they were given the Okay to talk to journalists.
montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
3) And last week, I wrote a Twitter thread on how I've been trying for nearly 6 weeks to interview the new executive director of the MUHC, Dr. Lucie Opatrny. The MUHC at first granted me the interview, then cancelled — with no future dates given for one.
Read 6 tweets
Aaron Derfel Profile picture
Apr 15
1) As much as we'd all like this #pandemic to be over, it simply isn't. In this thread, I explore the latest trends internationally and in my own backyard of Quebec. Let's start with the picture internationally, focusing on India, its new subvariant and its impact on children. Image
2) More than three years into this #pandemic, India is once again reimposing some public health protections, including a mask mandate and running hospital drills, as the Independent reported on Saturday. This latest wave is being driven by the XBB.1.16 subvariant, Arcturus. Image
3) Arcturus is causing high fever in children in India, along with a cough and itchy conjunctivitis or pinkeye. The chart below shows COVID cases far below India's peaks of May 2021 and January 2022, but rising from 0.07 per million population on Feb. 3 to 3.92 on April 11. Image
Read 10 tweets
Aaron Derfel Profile picture
Apr 14
1) For nearly the past five weeks, I have been trying in vain to interview the new executive director of the public McGill University Health Centre, Dr. Lucie Opatrny. The MUHC at first granted an interview, then cancelled it and now won't tell me when I can interview her.
2) Dr. Opatrny's appointment as head of the MUHC is significant news. She is the first women to run Quebec's largest hospital network. She is also a major public figure, given her former role as a deputy health minister during the pandemic, often speaking at news conferences. Image
3) Yet to the best of my knowledge, Dr. Opatrny has not given a single interview in her new role at the MUHC since her appointment was announced last December and since she started her new job on Jan. 30. There are plenty of reasons to want to interview her.
Read 11 tweets
Aaron Derfel Profile picture
Mar 8
1) Pour des raisons que je n'arrive pas à expliquer ou à comprendre, au moins deux commentatrices se sont plaints récemment que Montréal, la ville que j'aime, est « laide » et « sale » . En voici quelques extraits :
2) Selon @MFBazzo, pour qui j'ai beaucoup de respect, la ville de Montréal « est sale, elle perd nombre de ses forces vives ». Voir sa chronique ci-dessous dans La Presse d'aujourd'hui.
lapresse.ca/debats/chroniq…
3) Et il y a deux jours, @DeniseBombardi3 écrivait dans Le Journal de Montréal que la ville est « laide même sous la neige ». Aïe !
journaldemontreal.com/2023/03/06/mon…
Read 6 tweets
Aaron Derfel Profile picture
Mar 7
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. Image
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."
Read 10 tweets
Aaron Derfel Profile picture
Mar 7
1) Depuis que ma série sur la hausse des décès à l'urgence du Lakeshore a été publiée la semaine passé dans la @mtlgazette, j'ai eu le temps de réfléchir à la question de savoir si les urgences du Québec sont devenues plus risquées ces dernières années. Voici ce que j'ai trouvé.
2) En juillet 2022, les infirmières de Joliette ont averti qu'elles manquaient de bras au point de risquer la sécurité de leurs patients. Voir le lien vers un article de La Presse ci-dessous.
lapresse.ca/actualites/san…
3) Puis, en octobre 2022, il y a eu ce texte publié par Radio-Canada : « Plusieurs salles d'urgence au Québec sont tellement débordées que les médecins et les infirmières ont peur de faire des erreurs médicales. »
ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/19254…
Read 13 tweets

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