If you’ve had to visit the emergency room in B.C. over the last year, it probably isn’t news to you that wait times are bad.
It might surprise you how bad they actually are, though.
A new study from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) has analyzed wait times nationwide, highlighting which regions have the most work to do to improve wait times for patients awaiting emergency care.
MEI’s headline is simple: “Canadians are waiting too long in the emergency room.”
B.C. was also on the receiving end of quite a dubious honour in this study.
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MEI examined two key indicators, including the length of stay in the emergency room and the time it takes to reach the initial physical assessment. In B.C., the length of stay is 4 hours and 13 minutes. For the initial physical assessment, B.C. residents wait around 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Here’s how that compares to the rest of the country:
MEI
The MEI report adds a disclaimer that the province did not provide it with the median length of stay. For the B.C. numbers, it’s the average of the medians from each hospital, weighted by the number of ER visits at each hospital.
When examining the time to physical assessment, MEI notes that B.C., along with Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labrador, are in the “middle of the pack.”
“The performance of each individual hospital also varies considerably across the country,” MEI notes.
All provinces have seen an increase in both indicators, as noted by MEI. The rise in wait times dates back to 2020.
“When it comes to the evolution of wait times over the last five years, all the provinces (for which the data is available and has been provided) have seen both their median length of stay and their median time to physician initial assessment increase.”
B.C. received the dubious honour of being the province with the largest deterioration in the median length of stay over the last year, which increased by 14 minutes.
“While these comparisons of waiting times depend on myriad factors affecting both the establishments themselves and the quality of the data collected, they offer a snapshot of patient experience in emergency departments across the country,” the report states.
The conclusion MEI comes to in the report is that Canadians are waiting longer and longer to receive emergency care. MEI does offer some solutions pointing to France as an example.
“In France, there now exists a new type of clinic that aims to improve access to emergency care. These Immediate Medical Care Centres (“Centres médicaux de soins immédiats”) are independent clinics that specialize in handling lower-priority cases or minor non-life-threatening emergencies. These types of emergencies could be bone fractures, wounds that need stitches, infections, flu and other “non-vital” emergencies.”
MEI states that these centres are fully functional and can perform a range of tests, including blood tests and imaging. It adds that these facilities take pressure off the larger ones.
“These long wait times in Canada’s emergency rooms are just one of the symptoms of the many issues that plague its healthcare systems. Examples include the lack of access to primary care and delays in accessing specialist care, both of which can lead patients to the ER for lack of other options.”
Earlier this year, the Delta Hospital emergency room experienced a closure, which sparked considerable public outcry. Fraser Health referred to it as a temporary service interruption. Meanwhile, B.C.’s health minister stated that closures like this are typically a result of staffing issues.
B.C. has been trying to address this staff shortage, even attempting to woo American healthcare professionals to work in the province.
Do you have an emergency room wait time story you’d like to share? Send us an email at vancouver@dailyhive.com.
We’ve contacted the B.C. Ministry of Health for comment on the study.