Why emergency departments are overwhelmed

Guest: Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association

Despite spending much of the pandemic trying to ensure that hospitals were not overwhelmed, incredibly long waits at emergency departments at hospitals across the country are becoming the norm. In Ontario, the average wait time for an ER visit is 20 hours and anecdotal stories of patients waiting hours and even days for treatment keep adding up. There are several reasons for this, from pandemic burn out-caused staff shortages and other issues in the health care system, like a lack of family doctors across the country. Experts are sounding the alarm as things must change to improve the situation.

This episode was produced by Brian Bradley, Matthew Hearn and Raju Mudhar.