An investigation by CBC’s Marketplace shows a steep climb in the number of people walking out of emergency departments before seeing a physician. Close to half a million departures were recorded across Canada in 2024. The figure does not include full-year data from British Columbia and Quebec, which report on a fiscal cycle that extends into 2025, so the total is likely higher.
P.E.I. posted the highest share of departures at about 14 percent. Manitoba followed at about 13 percent. New Brunswick reached about 12 percent. Ontario reported the lowest rate at roughly five percent. Marketplace found this trend rising across most provinces and territories. Many regions reported lower than 10 percent in 2019. Newfoundland and Labrador saw one of the sharpest increases, with more than 35,000 departures in 2024, close to double the 2019 volume.
Marketplace and the Montreal Economic Institute gathered the information through freedom of information requests.
Growing Delays Driving Frustration
Emergency physician Dr. Fraser MacKay, who works in New Brunswick and sits on the board of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, said growing waits push people to leave before receiving care.
He described a pattern he sees during many shifts. “It is rare a shift will go by where one of the patients I’ll see isn’t someone there yesterday or the day before and couldn’t handle the wait and left. And now they come back and now they’re that much sicker,” he said.
Marketplace found longer waits to see a doctor and longer total ER stays in many regions across the country.
A New Brunswick Patient Shares Her Experience
Almost 60,000 people left New Brunswick ERs in 2024. Among them was 51-year-old Susan Gordon. She arrived at the Moncton Hospital in June by ambulance with intense stomach pain and repeated vomiting. After more than three hours in a crowded waiting area, she went home. Her symptoms worsened. She collapsed later and returned in September where she underwent surgery for appendicitis.
“It makes me feel like our system is broken,” she said.
Hospitals and Governments Respond
Horizon Health, the operator of the Moncton Hospital, said boarded patients waiting for beds in over-capacity hospitals slow the system. The organization said teams are working on improvements.
New Brunswick’s health minister said the province is taking steps to ease pressure on emergency departments through better patient flow and wider access to care.
Health PEI said it is increasing staffing and helping more residents connect with family doctors, nurse practitioners and virtual care.
A spokesperson for Manitoba’s health minister said the province has expanded capacity with more than 320 fully staffed hospital beds and added more than 3,400 health workers since October 2023.
