Superclinics won’t help ER crowding

The Quebec government’s purported prescription to solve emergency room crowding will be an unmitigated disaster.

ER crowding is unquestionably caused by an insufficient number of acute-care hospital beds. Patients in the ER who need to be hospitalized often do not have a ward bed available and therefore must occupy an ER stretcher for hours or days. Every time an ER stretcher is so occupied, people in the waiting room are denied access to timely care, and ambulances have difficulty off-loading patients.

ER crowding is not caused by a department being overwhelmed by patients with comparatively minor illness, and the science is quite clear that diverting these patients away to clinics solves nothing. The superclinic approach will solve nothing.

With constant over-occupancy in Montreal hospitals, no wonder the ERs are crowded. The Quebec government must act to restore hospital occupancy rates to more manageable levels.

Given the nationwide shortage of emergency physicians, forcing Quebec emergency physicians to work in walk-in clinics makes no sense. When Quebec ERs are more like combat hospitals, reducing the workforce will only compound the problem.

We shake our heads in wonderment at the tragedy that is emergency medicine in Quebec. Alan Drummond, MD, co-chair, public affairs, Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, Ottawa