MONTREAL — Health and Welfare Minister Christian Dubé will address the difficult emergency room situation in Quebec at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

The Montreal press conference begins at 1:00 p.m.

They remained very high early in the day on Tuesday, according to website Indexsanté, which tracks hourly emergency room occupancy rates in Quebec. They were 183% in the Lanaudière region, 158% in the Laurentians, 137% in the Outaouais, 129% in the island of Montreal, 128% in Chaudière-Appalaches, 123% in Montérégie and 111% in the Quebec region.

Last week, an Indexsanté statement pointed to very high occupancy rates and numerous stretcher stays longer than 48 hours, but especially in Montreal and the outlying regions. Tuesday’s report shows that the situation has worsened elsewhere in Quebec.

Minister Dubé announced last week that a crisis unit would be set up to propose very short-term solutions to the government to ease the pressure in emergency rooms. He asked his deputy minister, Dominique Savoie, to set up this unit, to which in particular the presidents of the CIUSSS in the Montreal region must belong.

Minister Dubé also asked the National Director of Public Health, Dr.

According to Christian Dubé, the phenomenon of flooding in emergencies should not decrease, because with the approaching holiday season the presence of respiratory viruses will become more important with the increase in influenza cases.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Minister Dubé will be joined by the Deputy Assistant Minister of his Ministry’s Directorate-General for Academic, Medical, Nursing and Pharmaceutical Affairs, Dr. Lucie Opatrny, and Deputy Assistant Minister of the General Directorate for Network and Department accompanies Coordination and Institutional Affairs of the Department, Daniel Desharnais.

The Canadian Press