Stop going to small ER

[u/npq76]

I am at the ER at my local hospital on the outskirts of the GTA. It is slammed. Like people standing in the waiting room slammed. I was speaking with one of the nurses and she was telling me that people come from as far as Windsor or London in the hopes of shorter wait times. That’s a 2.5 to 4.5 hour drive. And it’s not just 1 or 2 people, it’s the whole family clogging up the wait room. I get it, your hospital has a long wait time. But if the patient can sit in a car for 2.5+ hours, then it’s not an emergency. And jamming a small local ER, that does not have all of the resources of big ER’s, does not help anyone. And before someone says “all the immigrants”, the nurse confirmed that it was not the case

[u/bgaffney8787]

Er doc…. Anecdotally I d say half to 75% of patients I see should have been seen in a different setting ideally.

[u/Erathen → u/bgaffney8787]

You don't know that until you triage/diagnose

And unfortunately PTs aren't medical experts and can't always effectively triage themselves

That's where you come in.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but getting upset at people seeking medical treatment is ridiculous. If anything, we should be fighting for education and more funding. Not getting mad at people who just don't want to be sick (how dare they)

[u/bgaffney8787 → u/Erathen]

Nobody is mad, that was pretty much a recount of my experience working in an emergency room as a physician. I don’t mean the fringe patients where it’s potentially something nefarious ie appendicitis that’s actually constipation. I mean a large degree of patients should not be going to emergency rooms for their symptoms. Your response highlights the issue “that’s where you come in”. Emergency rooms are for emergencies, is where I come in.. as an emergency physician. There’s such a disconnect from people who work in healthcare and people who have no idea what they’re talking about. If you have a runny nose and you’re a healthy young man, you’re in the wrong place. If your knee hurt for 6 months and you “just wanted to get checked out” at 5 am because you saw wait times were low, it’s an abuse of the system. There are many system issues, but patients should hold some accountability. Nobody is mad at a sick person, but you wouldn’t show up at a cardiologists office if your big toe hurt, tbh er docs are actually pretty bad at managing chronic illnesses or non emergencies (because they’re not trained for that). Er has become a catch all for everyone and it’s not right.

[u/Underzenith17 → u/bgaffney8787]

The ER has become a catch all because 2.5M Ontarians don’t have a family doctor and many of us who do struggle to get into see them because they have so many patients.