Emergency Department Wait Times: A Deadly Reality
Emergency department wait times are a matter of life and death, and they are avoidable.
Thousands of Canadians are currently waiting in crowded hospitals to see an emergency physician, and for some, the wait will be fatal.
Unless governments act, Canadians will continue to wait in dangerous conditions – and more families will face tragic, preventable loss.
Emergency physicians are struggling to identify and treat life-threatening emergencies amidst the chaos, with their frustration and grief mounting as they try to keep a crumbling front line from collapsing.
Their job is to find the needle in the haystack, identifying who will die without immediate intervention, a task that is becoming increasingly difficult due to the overwhelming number of emergencies.
Author's summary: Deadly wait times in emergency departments are avoidable.