Vivien Carli is pleased to hear a special hotline for Montreal families with sick children is back up and running again.
A few months ago, she started a petition after the line was shut down that gathered over 2,000 signatures, after she waited over 16 hours at the Montreal Children’s Hospital to see a doctor for her 10-month-old, who had a three-day fever.
Though Carli has a family doctor, she says, he wasn’t able to see her son at the time, and so she had no choice but to wait at the emergency room.
“This line allowed everybody to have access to that urgent care and avoid us clogging the emergency rooms,” said Carli.
In September, the Montreal regional department of general medicine created a telephone number that allowed parents to quickly obtain a medical appointment for their child.
The temporary hotline was launched amidst the pandemic, in an effort to alleviate the strain on the pediatric system.
In seven months, it created just over 45,000 appointments.
But after it was shut down in March, there was an outcry from families and even medical staff who wanted it back.
“Our volumes went up to 330 patients per day, which is very high at this time of the year, especially in the setting we’re living right now with a lot of decreasing in our resources,” said Antonio D’Angelo, the head of Ste-Justine Hospital’s pediatric emergency department.
Which is why D’Angelo says he was extremely pleased when the line was reinstated.
In an email to Global News Monday morning, a spokesperson for health minister Christian Dube said the line was open for children with or without a family doctor.
But as of Monday afternoon, when we tried calling the line, it stated it’s only for children who do not have a doctor.
“I called and I was told because I have a family doctor, I cannot access this line,” said Carli. “So I’m confused, I’m frustrated and I don’t know what to do.”
As of Monday afternoon, Global News was not able to get a final answer as to who exactly has access to the line.
The province did say the temporary hotline will shut down again in the fall, once they establish a permanent, centralized line for people of all ages without a family doctor.