(Courtesy: Canva)
Emergency room wait times in Canada hit a new high as a recent report shows that patients have waited days to receive a hospital bed.
Long wait times in emergency rooms is an issue occurring across the country.
The report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows one in 10 admitted patients waited over 48 hours in the emergency department for a hospital bed during the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
This is a 12-hour increase from a report for 2018-2019 fiscal year.
Dr. Fraser McKay, the chair for the rural, remote and small urban section for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians and board member, told The Brandon Gonez Show that this issue has been a rising concern for a while.
“It’s about time this data was made very evident, because there’s nothing new about this,” Mackay shares.
Mackay says that there are some cases where patients have waited up to three days to receive a hospital bed.
“This is high level data, which is essential, critical stuff, but it paints an averaging. So, yes, 10 percent are over that 48 hour mark, which means several percent are far higher than that, 60 hours, 70 hours, 80 hours,” he said.
He shares that the main driver for the issue is the “access block to inpatient units.”
When a patient is admitted but the hospital units are at capacity, the person has to remain on stretchers in the emergency department despite being technically admitted.
“As those emergency beds fill up, the waiting room fills up, because we don’t physically have the infrastructure to see and assess the new patients,” Mackay told The Brandon Gonez Show.
The resolution to this issue is more complex than people may think. Short term fixes and initiatives such as having more primary care access and opening more walk-in clinics, although it is a positive, it is not addressing the issue that patients are being admitted in a hospital that is over capacity.
According to Mackay, there isn’t a universal solution to this issue since hospitals in different provinces may have different approaches to their health authorities.
“There isn’t a one size fits all. Because something works well in downtown Toronto, is not going to work necessarily in a rural community in northern B.C.,” he says.
The thought of having to wait long hours to be checked by an emergency physician may deter people from even going to the hospital when they feel ill, but Dr. Fraser Mackay is urging Canadians to do so, if need be.
“If you think you need to see a doctor today, go to the emergency department. Yes, you might wait all day long. Be courteous, be kind. We want to see you, we want to help you. We are doing what we can, even though it may not look like it to you,” he shares.
In order for the country to see change in the healthcare system, Mackay says the public needs to demand change by voting.
“Ultimately, healthcare is high-level political, it’s social policy, it’s the government, and what changes social policy? Votes. We need to be accountable, and that means making accountability regulations that are put into legislation, and that only happens if the public demands a change,” says Mackay.
This report spotlights a troubling issue in the healthcare system in Canada, and as hospitals across the nation face heavy demand, the need for sustainable and long-term solutions becomes increasingly urgent.
