The emergency room of the Suroît hospital in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield temporarily and partially closed its doors during the night from Sunday to Monday, due to a lack of sufficient staff.
Emergency cases were handled, but patients with minor problems who showed up there before 8am were told to go home.
“They fired non-emergency patients,” says Mélanie Gignac, president of the Montérégie-Ouest-FIQ union of care professionals.
The lack of staff is evident at the Suroît hospital. “On the evening shift, in the emergency room, we only have three nurses on the board,” says Mélanie Gignac. They should be between 15 and 17, she says. Day nurses must therefore regularly work overtime and mandatory overtime.
At CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest, we refuse to use the term “emergency closure” to describe the current situation. “There was no emergency closure,” spokeswoman Jade Saint-Jean said. All patients underwent triage but there was little capacity, non-emergency cases (priorities 4 and 5) were asked that night to go home and try to see their GP today or come back after hours. 8 am to prevent them from waiting too long. “
The occupancy rate of the stretchers exceeds 200% in the emergency room of the Suroît hospital.
More details to come.
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