Urgent matters in the emergency room when facing COVID-19

Alexandre Messier
2021 International Journal of Whole Person Care  
ith 18 years working as an emergency doctor behind me, I am a witness of some failures in our health care system. Do you think I am exaggerating? Well, the statistics tell the truth when our data (in Quebec, Canada) are compared to similar countries in The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. For example, after endless hours of waiting, one patient in ten leaves the ER without having been seen by a doctor. Let us not be fooled, some of them return later in worse condition.
more » ... n the pandemic arrived in Montreal, I thought our system was bound to collapse. Overcrowding in the ER kills, and the situation made me fear for the worst. Once my first reaction (panic) passed, a vibrant anger took its place. I had just completed four years as an advisor to the Minister of Health. During that time, I realized that health systems are very complex and there are many influential actors: politicians, provincial managers, hospital staff (from top to bottom), federations, labour unions (still strong in Quebec), etc. Some of these groups have too much, or not enough, power, while others are unable to produce meaningful change. Ultimately, all of this is detrimental to the care of the population and I realized that our system was hanging by a very thin thread. After years of feeling a sense of urgency and attempting to communicate it, I wanted, at the risk of sounding pretentious, to shout: "I told you that we had to act!" That inner cry illustrates how I felt at the time but, of course, this is not constructive and fails to recognize those who do the right thing, despite challenging W Urgent matters in the emergency room when facing Alexandre Messier 48
doi:10.26443/ijwpc.v8i1.270 fatcat:ib5ra6sphjdwjhab3p53b2r3tm