Photo: Adil Boukind The Duty
On Tuesday, he had to wait several hours to be screened at the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal.
The opening hours of the testing clinic of the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal will be prolonged up to 20 h Wednesday evening to respond to the traffic high seen in the last few days. The authorities also assess the possibility of opening other service points on the territory of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’île-de-Montréal.
Saturday, the regional Directorate of public health of Montreal had invited the persons who frequented bars since the 1st of July to undergo a screening of the COVID-19, as several cases of contamination had been identified at five facilities. This call has prompted many customers to present themselves to the clinics without an appointment, including that of the Hotel-Dieu, where very long queues are observed since Sunday.
Tuesday, the clinic of the Hôtel-Dieu has tested 1057 people, while the capacity is of 1000 tests per day.
“We didn’t expect such a response from the target audience that we wanted to close “, has recognized Jocelyne Boudreault, a spokesperson for the CIUSSS. “We are very happy with it. It proves to what extent people are aware of compared to the risk of getting the COVID and spread it. “
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The CIUSSS of the South-Central prompt, however, the population to consult the list of screening clinics in Montreal before moving to the Hotel-Dieu. At the present time, the territory of the island has two other walk-in clinics, is that of the rue Chauveau, in the East, and the CLSC de Montréal-Nord. Other clinics in the area make the screening appointment.
Logistics problem
“The problem is not the tests [swabs and reagents],” says Dr. Marie-France Raynault, medical specialist in community health and public health. It is the logistics and human resources. “
Dr. Raynault reminds that with the current governance structure, the regional Directorate of public health of Montreal must deal with the five directions of CIUSSS when it leads an operation of the mass screening on the territory. “The department of public health is obliged to beg of the workforce, she said. I’m not saying that the people of CIUSSS have necessarily a bad desire, but the structure is not facilitative. “
Mobilizing employees is also more complex than during the confinement, ” says the doctor. The clinics and hospitals have resumed their normal activities. The professional reassigned to the screening at the height of the crisis have returned to their usual post, cite it as examples.
Few mobile clinics
A meeting was held Wednesday morning at CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’île-de-Montréal and other measures could be announced later in the day.
The walk-in clinic, you Chauveau, located not far from the metro station of the Assumption, was also very popular in the last few days. Between 11 and 14 July, 3161 tests have been made. The CIUSSS of the East-of-the-Island-of-Montreal had already restarted its unit of mobile testing on the 9th July last, a few days before the call to bar patrons. It will move in several districts of the east of the island during the summer, said Catherine Dion, communications advisor at CIUSSS.
No walk-in clinic is currently in operation at the CIUSSS of Centre-Ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal. “We are planning to open clinics without an appointment in the coming days, which aim, among others, a customer aged from 15 to 29 years “, said his spokesman, Carl Thériault.