Quebec’s latest plan to resolve the province’s emergency room crisis includes opening two clinics run entirely by nurse practitioners.
The new clinics to open in the coming weeks in Montreal are part of a three-point plan announced today by Health Minister Christian Dubé to ease overcrowding in the province’s hospitals.
Dubé’s announcement comes the same day a letter was made public from the heads of Quebec’s emergency departments saying ERs in the province have reached a “breaking point.”
The minister is also announcing that the phone line Quebecers can call to be directed to health care will be extended to pediatric patients.
Dubé says the third part of his strategy involves moving patients out of hospital who can’t be returned home and don’t have a spot in a long-term care facility.
He says the government has put out a call for tender for 1,700 beds outside the hospital network, adding that 58 per cent of that extra bed space has already been found.
