In September 2021, the Département régional de médecine générale de Montréal (DRMG) created a new single telephone number (514-890-6111) that allowed Montreal families to quickly obtain a medical appointment for their child (0 to 16 years) who was ill but whose condition did not require a visit to the emergency department. The "One call, one appointment" service seamlessly matched parents of an ailing child to a pediatric appointment within a few hours. 

The temporary offering was launched amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to help reduce the strain on a pediatric system that was already overcapacity. For many weeks, the emergency rooms at the Montreal Children's Hospital and Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine were extremely busy, resulting in long waits for families and exhaustion among medical staff. 

Now that Montrealers are gradually turning the page on the pandemic and a number of public health measures being eased across the province, the service will come to an end as of March 31, 2022. The DRMG is pleased to announce that more than 45,000 appointments were made in just seven months with an average telephone wait time of just over two minutes. 

As of April 1, parents will be able to continue contacting their family doctors or local clinics by phone or online via the Quebec Medical Appointment Scheduler [1]. They can also call Info-Santé 811 for a non-urgent telephone consultation with a nurse.