Montreal ERs overflowing, some operating at over 200% capacity

The occupancy rate for emergency room stretchers rose to more than 150 per cent on Wednesday morning in Montreal, with it even exceeding 200 per cent in some hospitals.

According to Index Santé’s website, as of 11 a.m., the Lakeshore General Hospital was seeing an occupancy rate of 223 per cent, while the Jewish General Hospital was not far behind at 217 per cent.

Another hospital dealing with overcrowding is the Royal Victoria, which is seeing 191 per cent of its stretchers occupied.

On Tuesday, more than ten emergency rooms in Quebec recorded a stretcher occupancy rate of 190 per cent and up.

Influenza cases are increasing pressure on ERs — the positivity rate has climbed to 10.7 per cent in the last week, according to the Quebec’s public health institute, the INSPQ.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is seeing a positivity rate of 12.2 per cent, while COVID-19 is at 9.1 per cent.

Experts say this all comes as it’s not yet the peak of the flu season. Up to 2,000 people are showing up to Quebec hospitals daily due to viruses — with some, like the elderly, requiring hospitalization.

“It’s the regular season, the respiratory season in the healthcare system but its stretched to its limits,” said Dr. Karl Weiss, chief of infectious diseases and medical microbiology at the Jewish General Hospital.

As of Wednesday morning, over 4,500 people were in Quebec ERs and just over 1,100 people waiting to see a doctor.

According to Index Santé, the average stay in the waiting room is about five and a half hours.

“The problem is that very often, apart from the emergency rooms, there are no real, you know, like clinics or easy access for patients to go to,” said Dr. Weiss.

Dr. Weiss says its a structural problem.

“It’s just getting worse,” said Dr. Weiss. “It’s worse today than it was 10 years ago, 10 years ago was worse than 20 years ago, and 20 years ago was worse than 30 years ago, which is translating to a systemic structural problem of the healthcare system during the holiday season handling all these cases.”

Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and microbiologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital says  the flu has still not reached its peak of contamination.

“So yes, we are at the start of the influenza season in Canada, and we should expect to see more and more flu cases over the coming weeks,” said Dr. Papenburg.

“What we’re seeing now are more and more infections caused by respiratory viruses,” added Dr. Papenburg. “The big three really are respiratory sensational virus RSV influenza and COVID-19 and RSV really does attend to affect the youngest children the most. So children in their first year of life are most likely to get hospitalized for RSV and in fact, it’s the leading cause of hospitalization in children under one year of age in Canada.”

In 2024, Ontario and Quebec became the only two provinces rolling out fall immunization programs for newborns, which provides all infants with a new monoclonal antibody shot.

Dr. Weiss hopes the issues with access can be resolved.

Both doctors advise Montrealers to be up to date on their vaccinations, and remain home if showing any signs or symptoms of a flu or cold in fear of more community transmission.

“I think we’re seeing something which is more a structural problem of our healthcare system because its not very easily accessible, and therefore during the holiday season, it’s always the same story, you have a surge in number of cases in the emergency room because we have nowhere else to go,” said Dr. Weiss.