The alert level of the health network rose to the next level on Tuesday due to the increase in the number of hospitalizations, which deprives patients of their surgery and even encourages doctors to play the role of nurses.
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“We are once again pushing back the frontier of what I find unacceptable. What will the next threshold be? »Says Dr. Amélie Boisclair, intensivist at the Pierre-Le Gardeur Hospital in Terrebonne.
As of Monday, Quebec had 1,592 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 196 more than the day before, according to figures released by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
Isolated for 23 days
The maximum capacity for non-intensive care hospitalizations is now largely exceeded, raising the alert level from 3 to 4 in several hospitals.
All establishments must therefore prepare to offload activities and surgeries for a “possible level 4” and thus be able to accommodate even more patients with COVID-19, explains Marie-Claude Lacasse, from the Ministry of Health. .
Host and columnist Jordan Dupuis is one of the many patients to bear the brunt of this load shedding which has just shifted into high gear.
“I’m tired of being resilient,” he told the Journal Tuesday after launching a heartfelt cry on Facebook.
He was supposed to be operated on next Thursday at Pierre-Le Gardeur. Due to significant weight loss, he suffers from a variety of muscle pain and atrophies.
For more than 20 days, he had been in complete isolation in order to avoid contracting COVID-19 and thus be entitled to his third body reconstruction surgery.
And on Tuesday, he learned his surgery was being postponed due to a lack of beds.
“It no longer works”, sighs the one who cannot afford to isolate himself for weeks without working while mortgaging his school career as a university student.
From doctor … to nurse
At Pierre-Le Gardeur Hospital, the staff shortage is such that several anesthesiologists, surgeons and other specialists have decided to step out of their role as doctors to make up for the lack of nurses.
“We knew we couldn’t completely replace a nurse’s expertise, but if we could provide enough help to keep patients safe and allow a nurse to return home to fight another day, it was was it won, ”says one of them, Dr. James Too, family physician.
“It touches us deeply,” says Steffi Legault, 28 and a critical care nurse. They even come on night shifts. “
“It’s the most beautiful thing that I have experienced since the start of the pandemic”, abounds Coralie Lemaire, 27, about this gesture of solidarity.
This initiative does not lessen the “catastrophic effects” of the load shedding, recalls Dr. Boisclair.
At the time of publication, the CISSS de Lanaudière had not answered our questions.
– With Jonathan Tremblay
A meteoric rise
◆ Non-intensive care patients: 1407
◆ Patients in intensive care: 185
◆ Total hospitalizations: 1592
◆ Increase compared to Tuesday: 196
Sources: Santé Québec, January 3