Two and a half years after the Couillard government came to power on a pledge to reduce Quebec's infernally long emergency room wait times, an investigation by the Journal de Montreal shows not much has changed.
The average wait time in an emergency room in Quebec at 15.3 hours in 2016 — a drop of only a tenth of an hour from 2015.
In Montreal, the average wait time in an ER is 17.2 hours.
And at the Lakeshore hospital, the survey shows the wait time is a whopping 24.7 hours — longest of any hospital in the province.
CJAD 800 reached out to find out what is going on over there, and according to officials there are a number of explanations, and solutions on the way:
For one thing, they said in a statement that as the only emergency room in the West Island, the number of admissions exceed the number of beds, plus the local population is aging and requires more care.
Meanwhile, the construction of a the new $800 million hospital in Vaudreuil-Dorion, just off the island, will eventually help ease some of the pressure — in addition, they're working on strategies to direct non-urgent cases to other facilities, get those recovering home faster with personalized services, and making space for 4 more intensive care beds.
They expect that those efforts will provide results within a few months.
Emily Campbell contributed to this report.