Doctors across Canada are calling for a health-care system overhaul

Doctors across the country are calling for an overhaul of the health-care system, as overcrowded emergency rooms struggle to keep pace with respiratory viruses.

Health Minister Christian Dube is urging people to avoid ERs if possible, and to get vaccinated, which is bringing back unpleasant pandemic memories for many in the system.

"Right now, the big problem is the overcrowding in the emergercies," said Quebec Association of ER Physicians (AMUQ) vice-president Dr. Delphine Remillard Labrosse.

In Montreal, the average stretcher occupancy rate is over 150 per cent, and patients are waiting up to seven hours or longer in some hospitals to see a physician.

The AMUQ says the problem is not in the number of patients in the waiting room but rather the time it takes to admit patients to the wards.

"For us right now working in the emergency, the problem is really the overcrowding of the hospital, of the system," said Remillard Labrosse.

On average, patients spend close to 24 hours on an ER stretcher, while they wait for a bed to open up elsewhere in the system.

"That's what prevents us from doing our job," said Labrosse.

It's a similar story across the country.

"It's every emergency department, it's 24 hours a day," said Canadian Medical Association (CMA) president Kathleen Ross.

The CMA says Canada is in a primary care crisis.

"It is well past time to transform and rebuild the health care system," said Ross. "As a front-line provider, I can assure you that people are pushed to the brink. We are trying very hard to shore up the system that is crumbling around us and continues to strain us in ways that we can't really sustain."

In December, Quebec passed Bill 15, a massive health-care reform bill that overhauls the day-to-day management of the health-care system.

There are still questions about whether these changes will help reduce wait times and overcrowding.

Labrosse said doctors do feel like they are finally being heard, however.

"What gives hope to the team is that we see that there's a good understanding of what's going on," she said. "We don't just talk about the emergency that's the problem. We talk about the system as a problem."