Emergency department wait times during flu season
Wait times in Canada for an emergency physician will vary widely depending on the severity of the person’s health condition, how many people are waiting and how many beds are available. As mentioned above, the low number of beds in itself is an issue that leads to longer wait times, but during flu season it is even more complex.
According to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) waiting times in the emergency room on a good day this can take up to 22 hours, and only 23 percent of patients are admitted within eight hours of arrival. The association also notes in the article that doctors took to social media to highlight how dire the situation is, with one saying his emergency department was “operating at 360 percent capacity.”
Add to that the thousands of additional patients needing care during flu season, and those numbers could skyrocket. An article published on CTV News notes that an additional 100 patients were seen in one emergency room per day during flu season than on a regular day – and this is just from one hospital.
Emergency physician burnout and diagnostic issues
The flu presents similarly to other respiratory illnesses, so when someone goes to the emergency room with a cough, fever, and malaise, it’s hard to tell whether he or she is dealing with the flu, a cold, respiratory syncytial virus, or COVID-19.
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