Hospital ERs normally ease up after the Christmas break, but this year, hospitals are dealing with an unusual situation.

Well past the holidays now, and more than half of Montreal's emergency rooms are operating at over 150% capacity.

Frederic Abergel is director of clinical services at Montreal's health agency. He says this is not something they've seen in the past few years.

"It's a serious situation," he says, "but it's not a crisis because we are acting on it."

Some of the measures hospitals are taking to ease the pressure include delaying non-urgent surgeries and cancelling out-patient visits so doctors and other staff can be free to assist in the ER. 

While he says the flu and gastro are playing a part, they don't account for all the visits.

"This is what we are analyzing right now."

With these measures, the agency is hopeful the situation will improve over the next few days and weeks. 

To see the rate a specific hospital is operating at visit the agence website.