The Canadian Institute for Health Information has released its annual report on emergency department wait times, a litany of data that is as mind-numbing as it is depressing.
One in 10 people who head to their local ED wait more than 14 hours for care. For the sickest of the sick, those who need to be admitted to hospital, the waits are three times longer. One in 10 wait more than 48 hours, languishing on stretchers in hospital hallways. Individually, it can be much worse, like the 79-year-old man in Edmonton with severe influenza, who waited 90 hours for a bed.
