The emergency room occupancy rate at the Centre hospitalier du Suroît in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is less critical than it was at the start of the year. As of Monday February 26, it stands at 150%, according to the Index Santé website. In the Montérégie region, the average is 115%, also slightly lower than a few days ago. 

Since the beginning of the year, the occupancy rate in Montérégie hospital emergency rooms has been well over 100%. At the beginning of January, it stood at 173%. 

Five of the eight Montérégie hospitals are currently recording emergency room occupancy rates of over 100%. Three have occupancy rates below 100%. 

Despite this improvement, Hôpital du Suroît, located on Saint-Thomas Street in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, has the worst occupancy rate in the Montérégie, at 150%, according to the Index Santé website. Nearly 52 people are waiting in emergency, and of these, 5 are waiting to see a doctor. The average waiting time in the ER was 5 hours 34 minutes. For patients on stretchers, it was more like 25 hours and 10 minutes. Of the 32 functional stretchers, 48 are occupied, 28 for more than 24 hours and 17 for more than 48 hours.

Not far behind is Châteauguay's Anna-Laberge Hospital, with an occupancy rate of 144%, the second-highest in the Montérégie region. At the time of writing, 69 patients are in the emergency department. Of these, 7 are waiting to see a doctor. The estimated waiting time was 9 hours and 45 minutes. For patients on stretchers, it took 29 hours 13 minutes to see a doctor. In total, 46 of the 32 stretchers normally available are occupied in the ER, and 20 patients have been there for 24 hours, while 6 have been there for at least 48 hours. 

At the Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe-Claire, the situation is not much better, with an occupancy rate of 203%. According to the latest data, 69 people are in emergency and 7 are waiting to see a doctor.  The average waiting time was 6 hours and 11 minutes. For those on stretchers, it was 24 hours and 42 minutes. A total of 63 patients are on a stretcher, 38 for more than 24 hours and 31 for more than 48 hours.

Other solutions to the emergency

The ER may not be the best place to get rapid care. To find out about alternatives, visit urgencesoupas.ca, which will guide you to the resource best suited to your health problem. 

In fact, there are several alternatives to hospital emergency rooms in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region.

When in doubt about your health, here are 5 easy steps to take before going to the emergency room:  

Call Info-Santé 8-1-1, a resource available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A nurse will be able to give you specific advice about your situation. She can also tell you whether or not you should see a doctor right away.

See your pharmacist, who can also advise you on what to do by asking you questions about your general state of health.

Ask your family doctor for a consultation, if you have one. If your doctor or another in his or her group can't see you quickly, he or she may be able to refer you to another clinic nearby.

Visit the Portail santé mieux-être to book an appointment near you with a family medicine group (GMF) or a GMF-Réseau (GMF-R Vaudreuil-Dorion, or GMF-R des Trois-Lacs ) that offer walk-in consultations.

Consult a winter clinic that offers extra availability to treat non-urgent health problems during winter, a time of year when certain viruses circulate.