'I felt desperation': Parents demand return of pediatric hotline for urgent appointments

Vivien Carli is lucky to have a family doctor, but she was left scrambling when her 10-month-old son Lucas ran a fever for three consecutive days.

When her son's physician wasn't available, the nurses at the clinic tried their best to refer her to other clinics, but none of them had availabilities either.

"As a new mom, I felt desperation," she said, recounting the night of Friday, May 6 with her son.

"I tried them all and I couldn't get an appointment within the next 36 hours. I had no choice, my son had to see a doctor — in person."

She headed to the Montreal Children's ER. It was a grueling 16-hour wait for what ended up being a mild ear infection and a prescription, she said.

"I didn't understand why I was clogging up the emergency room when I could see the stress it was causing other parents who had urgent cases, and health professionals," Carli said.

It's a problem many parents find themselves in when their child needs urgent care, but not necessarily a trip to the ER.

The trouble could have been avoided if the "One Call, One Appointment" service offered by the city's two pediatric hospitals not been scrapped in April, she says.

A single phone number for the island of Montreal allowed parents of children up to age 16 to call for a medical appointment for ailments not requiring a trip to the ER, usually within a few hours or by the next day.

Carli has launched a petition to bring it back. More than 1,100 have signed so far.

"It led to hundreds and hundreds of moms writing to me saying they wanted to do something," she said.

Only temporary

The hotline was created last September to alleviate emergency room congestion at the Montreal Children's and Sainte-Justine hospitals, but it was only intended to be a temporary measure, said Nhu Nguyen, who works with the medical group that set it up.

"It was in response to an exceptional situation with the ongoing pandemic and return to school," said Nguyen, who couldn't commit to its return.

"We obviously will use every tool in our toolbox depending on the needs," she said. "We are closely monitoring those needs."

The occupancy rate of the Children's Hospital ER averaged 173 per cent over the last five weeks, as of this Wednesday, while Saint-Justine's averaged 203 per cent, according to public data.

Dr. Georges Zaarour said his clinic, District Medical in Ahuntsic, was able to serve more adult patients and stay open four hours later than usual within weeks of the hotline being introduced.

"There was just something about that program that brought the whole team together and made them want to chip in even more in our very busy busy schedule," said Zaarour, the medical director there.

More than 45,000 appointments were set up through the hotline over the seven months it was operating, according to the Children's Hospital.

"It was a great program and the whole team of 23 family doctors were very, very sad to see it dropped so suddenly," he said, adding many of those doctors have upward of a thousand patients each.

Parents can still contact their family doctor, use the province's online appointment scheduler, or contact a nurse at 811 if they think their child needs to go to the emergency room, Nguyen said.

Medical services geared to Montreal patients still on the province's waiting list for a family doctor will also soon be available within the next few weeks, she said.

Appointments will be accessible through the Guichet d'accès à la première ligne (GAP), an online one-stop service that will allow patients to consult health-care professionals within a "reasonable" timeframe. It's expected to be fully operational in Montreal by September, Nguyen said.

"It will give access to those people waiting for a one-time service. Those should reduce the pressure on the emergency departments," she said.

But the service isn't much help to parents like Carli, whose son already has a family doctor.

"I don't want to wait until the end of summer, I don't want to wait till elections," she said. "It's a nightmare right now."