Quebec’s health minister on Dec. 5 defended his government’s efforts to reduce wait times in hospitals, yet admitted it was “completely unacceptable” two people died in a Montreal-area emergency room last week.
The deaths at Anna-Laberge hospital, in Chateauguay, Que., south of Montreal, are now the subject of investigations by the Quebec coroner’s office and the local health authority, Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Montérégie-Ouest.
Health officials have refused to provide details, including the dates the deaths occurred.
The two patients died during what the authority described in an email on Dec. 5 as a period of high traffic and “very high” wait times in its facilities.
On Dec. 5, a government website listed an average waiting room stay of nine hours and 44 minutes at Anna-Laberge hospital, where stretcher occupancy was at 206 percent capacity.
“Every effort is being made to reduce the pressure on emergency departments, for the well-being of both teams and patients,” the authority that oversees the hospital said in the statement, adding that meetings were underway with the provincial Department of Health and other regional officials to address the…
Read the full article here