Ambulances detained at Cité de la Santé

The congestion, which began in late afternoon, persisted until about 11:00 pm. The day before, another ambulance had to cool its wheels for over five hours before the ER could accept the patient it had brought to the hospital.

According to hospital spokesperson Mathieu Vachon, the exceptional situation resulted from the rare simultaneous development of an overextended ER and the arrival of several ambulances with more patients.

“The waiting of ambulances at the ER is a fairly common occurrence,” he says. “But under normal circumstances the wait rarely lasts more than an hour. As far as I can recall, this is the first time in several months that we’ve had ambulances waiting that long.”

“We experienced the arrival of a large number of ambulances in very little time,” Mr. Vachon adds. “In a normal day of service we receive about 35 ambulances, but on Wednesday we had to process nearly 50, and with the ER already full, it’s not surprising that the delay was that long.”

“(Waiting with patients at ERs) is not part of the basic work of a paramedic,” explains Urgences Santé spokesperson André Champagne. “This kind of situation which is typical of medical centres serving a large region, makes our ambulances less available and compromises our response time (for other emergencies).”

“It’s only out of professional conscience and human consideration that our paramedics stayed with the patients,” Mr. Champagne adds. “To leave patients alone and unattended would be simply inhuman. But on the other hand, we understand that hospital situations are not always clear (to outsiders), so it’s very important for us to cooperate with them (ER officials).”

Nonetheless, during the Wednesday crisis at Cité de la Santé, Urgences Santé was compelled to transfer some cases to hospitals in Montreal.

“We took necessary steps to ensure that we would not clog up other ERs with patients we were moving from Laval,” Mr. Champagne pointed out.

No negative incidents were suffered from the long wait imposed on the seven ambulances. As of Thursday morning, it was back to situation normal at Cité de la Santé.

(Photo: Martin Alarie)