Quebec ER Stretcher Crisis: Bedsores & Deaths

0:00It's April 7th. You're listening to Canada News today, AI-powered local news. Holly Medicine is hitting Quebec emergency rooms hard, with patients stuck on stretchers and corridors for days instead of proper beds. This setup ramps up risks like falls, medical errors, and even deadly accidents, way worse than hospital beds. Doctors call it a crisis, backed by stats showing nearly 27% of ER stretchers occupied over 24 hours last fall. Even heartbreaking case involved the quadriplegic man who got severe bedsoars on a bear stretcher, leading him to seek medical assistance in dying. Quebec's old health dashboard tracked these long stretcher stays with a 0% target, but when Saute Quebec took over in February, they dropped. That key indicator along with others like under 16-hour goals. Now, after pushback from ER specialists and media reports, Saute Quebec posted on social media Monday pledging to bring back the over 24 hour. Stretcher metric in a clearer graph.

1:01Meanwhile, the agency's facing heat over heart surgery wait times 2, as trust in their data transparency hangs in the balance for fixing these ER.