Crowded emergency: Nursing staff on “sit-in” at Anna-Laberge Hospital

Nursing staff at Anna-Laberge Hospital participated in a “sit-in” on Saturday to protest “unsafe care provided to patients”.

• Also Read: Woman spends night on emergency room floor with punctured appendix

The emergency department of the health institution located in Montérégie has an occupancy rate of over 200%.

According to the union, 14 nurses participated in a “sit-in” at 7:30 a.m. At 11:30, when the nurses were forced to start their shift, their night shift colleagues and those who extended their shift were forced to leave after 16 hours of work.

Five nurses are currently missing on the Anna-Laberge hospital floor.

“We have 30 patients waiting for beds on the floors, we have 19 beds available on the floors. On the other hand, the doctors are not attending to these patients. This puts a little hold on the emergency,” emphasized Dominique Caisse, union agent and interim president of FIQ Montérégie-Ouest.

In an interview with TVA Nouvelles, the latter explains how the current conditions of the establishment are unfavorable for the staff.

“It means shortage of staff [les infirmières] Unable to provide adequate care. Nurses have a very heavy patient load. It’s like cutting corners because if they want to help all patients, there are things that aren’t done,” he says.

“On the Labor front, again, there is a big problem.”

The hospital management has taken steps to rectify the situation. In particular, she admitted that 10 patients in the emergency room went upstairs for emergency relief.

The Communications and Public Affairs Department of the Monteregi-Ouest Integrated Health and Social Services Center, contacted by TVA Novelles, reported that “management, mid-level and nursing staff mobilized quickly to find solutions to reduce stress.”

Management has confirmed that it is “closely monitoring the situation with the medical department and teams to ensure that there is an adequate number of nursing staff for future shifts”.

Among other strategies to defuse the emergency, the management said it diverted ambulances and called doctors to “pay more attention to the units”.

At 12 noon, there was a 30-hour wait in the emergency room. 53 patients were still on stretchers, compared to 67 in the morning.