Load shedding is not enough, Quebec agrees

Quebec, which has been battling a “snowfall” of COVID-19 patients and a record 20,000 health workers, predicts that hospital vacancies will soon be unheard of since the outbreak began.

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Faced with this “very, very, very difficult” situation, Health Minister Christian Dubey said on Thursday that he was working with unions in the field to find solutions to reopen previously closed hospital beds.

He said all possible steps would be taken to get out of this situation as soon as possible.

Many hospitals have already reached load shedding level 4, which means they postpone more than 50% of emergency surgeries to treat patients with COVID-19, which the government estimates is not enough.

There are a lot of people who go to level 4 load shedding, but it’s not enough to treat all the patients in the coming weeks, “said Deputy Minister Dr. Lucy Opatrney.

The province is actually moving towards a record hospitalization of more than 3,000, with more than 400 in intensive care.

The National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) estimates this, according to estimates published Thursday morning.

The effects of the recently implemented health measures are yet to be seen in the data presented today, INESSS said in a press release.

“Models do not unify the progress of the 3rd vaccine dose and its effect on hospital admissions”, we read.

These estimates are also less solid than the previous ones, due to the capping of screening capabilities over the past week, which significantly underestimated the actual number of cases.

For this reason, INESSS indicates that this assessment report can no longer be reliably generated.

“Most people are hospitalized for reasons other than Kovid, but they are positively (secondary diagnosed) after admission or during their stay. This ratio represents about 50% of normal beds and more than 15% of intensive care beds, ”the institute said.