Ministry adds 10 new clinics; health lines overrun
Health ministry considers expanding screening to include home testing
Health Minister Danielle Mccann announced Friday the government will set up another 10 COVID-19 screening clinics in the coming days, in addition to those in Montreal and Quebec City that opened this week.
The clinics — in the Outaouais, Mauricie, Saguenay, Laurentians and Eastern Townships — are being established despite the fact the 811 Info-santé telephone line has been swamped with calls by worried Quebecers.
Before individuals with the flulike symptoms associated with COVID-19 can go to a screening clinic, they must book an appointment with an Info-santé nurse.
Mccann recommended that if people have trouble getting through to 811, they can phone the following number: 1-877-6444545.
Since the Health Ministry launched its first COVID-19 screening clinic on Monday, the number of people under investigation has increased more than 25fold, a Montreal Gazette analysis of the latest government figures shows.
On Monday, the number of confirmed and probable cases of the respiratory illness stood at five, the number of cases under investigation was 25 and the number of people who tested negative was 376.
By Friday afternoon, the number of confirmed cases climbed to 17, the same as Thursday, but the number of people under investigation soared to 646 and the number of negatives jumped to 1,079.
The ministry has not yet made public the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19.
Francine Dupuis, associate director general of Montreal’s centre-west health authority, acknowledged that Info-santé has become overwhelmed.
Dupuis appealed to retired nurses and those on leave to volunteer to be trained to answer the 811 Info-santé medical hotline. On Wednesday, the hotline was swamped with more than 16,000 calls, resulting in lengthy delays.
One person, an ER nurse herself, told the Gazette on Friday she waited for two hours on the 811 line before giving up.
“I have decided to return to my work and see if I can get tested there or be given an appointment to the designated areas to get tested,” the nurse said by email.
“I will see where I can get it done faster. I hate to do this as an ER nurse, but I feel like I do not have the choice, taking into account that I do have symptoms. I am not that sick but I know that they will tell me to get tested since I have been in contact with someone who travelled to Europe.”
The nurse criticized Quebec’s response to what the World Health Organization has declared a pandemic.
“I am not upset about the hospital waiting times; they are overworked as it is,” she added. “What I am frustrated about is those of us who do take the proper route to get the help and we are unable to get access.
“China was able to build a facility just for this in a few weeks,” the ER nurse continued. “Why are we as Canadians not doing the same or acting as quickly?”
On Thursday, Dupuis said, the Health Ministry was considering expanding the COVID-19 screening program to provide home tests under the province’s homecare program. Should that be the case, CLSC nurses would likely deliver the test kits to people in their homes.
“The government is looking now at the possibility of offering the testing at home through homecare services,” Dupuis explained. “So with our nurses from homecare services, a team is being designated in each CIUSSS (health authority region), trained and with proper equipment would be able to go to a home and help the person avoid going to a (screening clinic). So this is something that is being looked at.”
Meanwhile, Montreal’s centre-south health authority imposed on Friday new restrictions on visits to hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and long-term centres. At Notre-dame and Verdun hospitals, all visits are no longer allowed for the foreseeable future except for humanitarian reasons (a visit to a patient at the end of that person’s life).
Under strict conditions, visits will be permitted to long-term care centres, the Institut de réadaptation Gingras-lindsay de Montréal, the Hôpital chinois de Montréal and the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. Those conditions include: Visitors must not have travelled abroad in the past 14 days, and visitors must not have flu or cold symptoms.