The number of people leaving the emergency department across the country has been on the rise in recent years.
About a half a million Canadians left emergency departments before being seen by a doctor in 2024, according to a data analysis by CBC’s Marketplace.
Because B.C. and Quebec report these figures based on the fiscal calendar (and include parts of 2025), that number is likely a lot higher.
. . . where the emergency departments are open at all. (Closures in Thessalon and Richard’s Landing, along the north shore of Lake Superior, often make the news where I am.)