Ottawa

New child outpatient clinic opening in Gatineau

Western Quebec's health authority is opening a new child outpatient clinic to help keep families without a family doctor from turning to overwhelmed emergency rooms.

Goal is to keep kids without a family doctor from overwhelmed ERs

The Gatineau Hospital in spring 2020. A new outpatient clinic is opening across the street on Nov. 21 to try to ease the strain on the city's emergency departments. (Jonathan Dupaul/CBC)

Western Quebec's health authority is opening a new child outpatient clinic to help keep families without a family doctor from turning to overwhelmed emergency rooms.

The clinic will operate weekdays starting next Monday at 500 boul. de l'Hôpital. across the street from the Gatineau Hospital, according to a news release from the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Outaouais (CISSSO).

Families that need an appointment can call 811 or consult their pharmacist to get the process started. If someone's health is in serious trouble, call 911.

Pediatricians are sounding the alarm over the severe situation in children's hospitals around Quebec with high levels of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Hospitals across the river in Ottawa are faring no better.