Emergency departments in Quebec hospitals are still very busy at the start of the new year.
The stretcher occupancy rate exceeded 100 per cent for the sixth day in a row on Thursday. According to data from the Index Santé website, it stood at 128 per cent at around 12:30 p.m. This is the highest level since the start of the holiday season.
In this latest update of statistics, there were 4,602 patients, of whom 1,416 were waiting to see a doctor.
Emergency departments were particularly overflowing in the Laurentian and Laval regions, with occupancy rates of 162 and 161 respectively, and in the Outaouais (151) .
The situation was better, but still worrying, in Montérégie (129) and Abitibi-Témiscamingue (116) and the Quebec City region (105).
The region that fared best was Gaspésie and Îles-de-la-Madeleine (50) , Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (80).
A documented phenomenon
The number of people admitted to emergency departments fell slightly around …