A 76-year-old patient was admitted 13 times to the emergency room of the Pierre-Boucher hospital over a two-month period, in Longueuil, on the South Shore of Montreal.
• Read also: A 200% occupancy rate at Anna-Laberge Hospital
• Read also: Airport crisis threatens hospitals
Despite the patient’s many visits, each time she has to start the long waiting process again.
Lise Sansoucy’s daughter, Marie-Josée Sansoucy, believes her mother deserves more adequate health services.
“She had to come to register again yesterday, as if she had never seen anyone in the emergency room. I believe that they have observed her a lot since May 8, so I thought that her hospitalization for a few days could help her (…) I deplore that! She is currently in pain. Each time, a new doctor sees her,” emphasizes Marie-Josée.
Ms. Sansoucy’s state of health has been worsening for some time, particularly in her lungs.
In order to give respite to patients who have to go to the emergency room on a regular basis, the president and director general of the Council for the protection of the sick, Paul Brunet, offers some possible solutions.
“Why, as we have been proposing for so long, we cannot treat elderly people with loss of mobility at home? When we do that, there is no crisis in the emergency room. The person is cared for at home in comfort and safety. This does not clutter the emergency rooms and hospital beds. I don’t understand why we haven’t started doing that,” he said.
Officials at the Pierre-Boucher hospital are discussing the possibility of deploying a home care team to take care of Lise Sansoucy.
“When we have people who often come to the emergency room, we take care of them. A team takes care of carefully analyzing their needs to prevent these people from coming back, ”explains Catherine Bourgault-Poulin, director of communications at the CISSS de la Montérégie-Est.
The lady reminds us to avoid going to the emergency room of the hospital this Thursday, because of the occupancy rate of 160%.