As people in B.C. continue to face issues securing primary care physicians, the BC Conservatives are shining a light on another issue, this time in emergency rooms.
In B.C., there was an 86 per cent increase from 2018/19 to 2024/25 in the number of people leaving emergency rooms without being seen by a doctor.
This number, however, pales in comparison to the jump in Island Health for the same time period. Island Health, which saw the largest increase of all health authorities in B.C., saw a 160 per cent increase.
“That’s a pretty big flashing red light that we’ve got some substantive issues in ERs across the province,” Brennan Day, MLA for Courtenay-Comox and critic for rural health and senior’s health, said.
“It’s now about 30,000 people here on the Island that attended an ER and were not seen by a doctor.”
Part of the issue, Day says, is the increasing inaccessibility of walk-in clinics.
“The closing of walk-in clinics are having a massive impact on ER load, and they’ve hit their breaking point. People are being forced to attend ERs when they might not necessarily need to go to the ER,” Day said.
“And people in mental health distress and psychiatric distress are also ending up there, and this is putting a ton of burden on frontline ER staff when that might not be the best place for them.”
CHEK News asked for an interview with Josie Osborne, B.C.’s health minister, but was sent a statement from the Ministry of Health instead.
The statement says that other jurisdictions in Canada are seeing higher volumes and higher acuity patients in hospitals.
“When patients first arrive at the ED, they are triaged and seen based on acuity. The sickest patients are always seen first. Patients are never turned away from the ED,” the statement from the ministry says.
“If a person’s condition changes while they are in the waiting room, we recommend they tell the triage nurse immediately, and they may be reprioritized.”
The statement also says that the number of patients leaving without seeing a doctor is “a small proportion of the total visits.”
“If a person feels they no longer need to wait, they should let the triage nurse know that they are leaving,” the statement says.
“Health care staff will reassess their condition and confirm whether they are okay to go (i.e. if someone has chest pain, they generally would be suggested not to leave).”
The statement points to the recent efforts to recruit more physicians to work in B.C. and a November 2023 investment in increasing acute care beds and as measures taken to address the issues.
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CHEK News asked Island Health for an interview, and the health authority said it “defer to the Ministry of Health response on this.”
—With files from CHEK’s Mary Griffin.