Via The Monger comes this article by Christine Blatchford.
...last month at Guelph General Hospital, where he works most of the time, about 3,400 patients came to emergency.
Between 355 and 380 of them -- or one in nine -- left without ever being seen by a doctor.
"They asked for us to help them," Dr. Gartner said, frustration edging his voice, "and 11 per cent said the wait was too long and went home."
About a third of those who left had been triaged as Level 3, or in need of urgent care.
...Dr. Gartner is one of more than a dozen physicians who met on March 10 to discuss the recent death of a 21-year-old University of Waterloo student who left a Kitchener hospital without being able to see a doctor.
Patricia
Vepari, a chemical engineering student, died Feb. 4 -- two nights after she first arrived at the overcrowded emergency room of Grand River Hospital, complaining of a high fever, sore throat and nausea -- of a virulent bacterial infection called meningococcemia.
Told she would have to sit in ER for eight or nine hours before being seen by a doctor, Ms. Vepari returned to the comfort of her own bed in a house she shared with several other students.
"The key point," Dr. Gartner said furiously yesterday, "that no one wants to know or acknowledge or state is that things like Patricia happen on a regular basis, they're just not as high-profile, or they don't involve an incredibly bright young woman." He said that in one recent case, an elderly man came to emergency with abdominal pain, "but the wait was long and he went home and he died."
[Emphasis added]
Just as our Prime Minister said, we will not accept second best when it comes to Health Care. Too bad that doesn't mean we'll be in first place.
