Canada’s ER crisis: Doctors are urging governments to find solutions for “dangerous” wait times

Emergency room doctors say patients are experiencing “dangerous” wait times in ERs across the country and they are calling on federal and provincial governments to stop pointing fingers and work together towards a solution.

One of the biggest concerns is significant nursing shortages, which have led to bed closures in emergency departments and within medical units in hospitals. This means fewer available beds and personnel to care for patients at a time when hospitals are seeing an influx of sick Canadians.

Additionally, many Canadians have no choice but to go to ERs as they are unable to access primary care thanks to a national shortage of family physicians.

Health workers already burned out from working flat-out during the last two-and-a-half years of the pandemic are now left short-staffed amid a surge in patients due to waves of COVID-19 continuing and an unusually early start to the respiratory virus season.

As Heather Yourex-West reports, doctors say long wait times have put patients’ lives at risk.