More than 1.2 million Canadians left an emergency room last year without receiving treatment, according to a new report.
Canada documented 16.3 million visits to emergency rooms in 2024, with 1,267,736—or 7.8 percent—of patients not receiving treatment, said the report published this month by public policy think tank MEI.
The highest rate of patients exiting emergency rooms without treatment was observed in Prince Edward Island, at 14.15 percent, according to the report. Next was Manitoba with a rate of 13.23 percent, followed by New Brunswick with a rate of 12.85 percent.
Ontario recorded the smallest percentage of patients departing prior to receiving treatment, at 4.92 percent of the estimated 5.9 million who visited an emergency room last year. This was followed by British Columbia at 5.47 percent, and Alberta at 8.77 percent.
About half of those who left are classified by ER triage as “semi-urgent or non-urgent” cases, report author and MEI economist Emmanuelle B. Faubert said.
“While these patients do not have the most pressing of medical needs, they still need care, without which their condition may worsen,” Faubert said, noting that it is essential to solve the “crisis in primary care” to keep patients from “falling through the cracks.”
“Policymakers must find the political courage to open up healthcare delivery to independent and alternative providers, or else this crisis is bound to get worse,” she said.
The report recommends “increasing the number of alternatives to emergency rooms,” saying it would “ease the pressure” on the system and reduce wait times.
“This kind of approach would also help reduce the risk of patients leaving emergency rooms untreated, which can worsen their condition and then require the mobilization of even more resources from Canada’s healthcare systems,” Faubert wrote.
In a recent case highlighting the issue, a Montreal man died of an aneurysm a day after waiting for hours in an emergency room before giving up and going home.
