'I don't think I'll last': How Canada's emergency room crisis could be killing thousands

As many as 15,000 Canadians may be dying unnecessarily every year because of hospital crowding, according to one estimate

Sharon Kirkey

Published Jul 19, 2024

Patients left in the hallway due to an at capacity emergency room at the Humber River Hospital in Toronto in January 2022. PHOTO BY NATHAN DENETTE /The Canadian Press

It wasn’t how the emergency doctors ranked each statement — from “never” to “every day” — in the burnout inventory that alarmed Dr. Kerstin de Wit and her research team.

It was the doctors’ responses, in a final, optional, open-ended question: “Is there anything you would like to tell us about your experiences?”

“This is awful. Worst in 20 years. With no light; just darkness,” one remarked.

“The environment is drowning me slowly, and it’s increasingly difficult to come up for air,” another responded. “After 23 years in the ED, I don’t think I’ll last another year.

“I’m done.”

Read more at the National Post