Nearly one in seven patients with conditions treatable in primary care rely on emergency rooms instead, due to factors such as the lack of a regular health provider, perceptions of faster service, and difficulty getting timely family doctor appointments, according to a new report.
Roughly 1.2 million visits to the emergency department in Canada each year are for primary care conditions, and more than half of them could be managed through virtual services, according to a Dec. 5 report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Children, people without access to family doctors or walk-in clinics, and residents of remote or rural areas are the most likely to use emergency services for non-urgent cases.
