ERs face worse wait-times this summer, as 'waiting-room' medicine gets creative

Staying in the ER for hours or even days waiting for a hospital bed should be seen by Canadians as unacceptable, says an emergency physician.

But Dr. Catherine Varner, who is also deputy editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, recently wrote an editorial warning that emergency departments across the country face record-setting wait times and closures this summer. 

"There have been times over the last two years where I'm standing in our waiting room with many patients waiting to be seen, many of whom are uncomfortable and sick, where you want to sort of shout at the rooftops and say, 'This is what a health-care system in collapse looks like,'" Varner said in an interview with colleague Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art.

This week, premiers committed to improving health care as a key priority following their meeting in Winnipeg. This comes as ERs across the country still face overcrowding, record wait-times, lack of hospital beds, closures and staff burnout. The situation is critical for some patients, with reports across the country of people dying while waiting in hospitals.

Some studies suggest that patients admitted to hospital who have to stay in the ER because beds on units aren't available may face a higher risk of dying the longer they stay in the emergency department.

Varner, who works at a Toronto ER, said patients start out frustrated. But when people with a fractured hip, for instance, wait hours for hospital admission, they tell her fear sets in, which turns to "profound disappointment."

Trying to maintain a patient's privacy in a waiting room is challenging, she said. This has led to what she says is a new field — waiting-room medicine — where providers adapt to seeing patients sitting on a chair in the waiting room instead of lying on a stretcher or by using unconventional spaces, such as in an ambulance parked on the hospital driveway.

But wait-times aren't the only issue facing Canada's ERs. Shelley Gosselin's father, Charles Marsh, died before he was even able to get into an open emergency department.

Gosselin said Marsh, 78, was otherwise healthy when he had an asthma attack in February. He drove to the local ER in Bonavista, N.L., for oxygen, but it was unexpectedly closed due to staffing shortages. Marsh called an ambulance the next day and died en route to another ER.

Gosselin, who spent 25 years working as a nurse in the military, said it is hard to look at the degrading health-care system from both sides, knowing people are dying because their medical needs go unmet.

"There were nurses in the hospital that could have opened the doors and let him in and given him the oxygen," the Ottawa resident claimed on The Current last week.

"Never, ever should ER doors be locked and turn people who need the basic essentials in life away."

At the time, Eastern Health said in a statement to CBC News it is unable to publicly discuss any specifics regarding an individual patient case due to the Personal Health Information Act.

In March, the province's health minister offered doctors a $200,000 signing bonus to work in Bonavista.