New data obtained by CTV News shows the number of Canadians leaving hospital emergency rooms without being seen is even higher than we originally reported earlier this month.
CTV News requested updated information for the 2022-2023 year, which was not detailed in the latest Canadian for Health Information (CIHI) report.
CIHI officials were able to reveal new figures that over 1.3 million Canadians left the emergency room after registering for care in the 12-month period between April 1, 2022 and March 30, 2023.
This is a 34 per cent increase in the number of Canadians discharged from long emergency room waits in a single year, compared to 2021-2022 data, which reported 963,000.
This means that of the 15.1 million Canadians who sought care in emergency rooms, 8.6 per cent were left without medical care. That compares with 6.8 percent of the 14.1 million patients who registered at an emergency room between 2021 and 2022 who left the hospital without being seen.
“Patients arriving at emergency departments across Canada sit in waiting rooms that are chaotic and overcrowded. “They are frustrated by our inability to provide timely and efficient care and are leaving,” Dr. Catherine Varner, an emergency physician in Toronto and deputy editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
“What concerns me most is that some of the people who go unnoticed become very ill or die from the illness that caused them to seek treatment in the first place,” she added.
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