According to a new study by the Montreal Economic Institute, over 1,000 patients a day ended up leaving a Quebec hospital emergency room after triage and before having been attended to by a doctor.

Patrick Déry, the study author, found that of the 3.7 million visits to Quebec ERs, last year, nearly 380,000 Quebecers, about one patient out of 10, left the ER without having been attended to by a doctor and without having been redirected, according to the data from Quebec’s Department of Health.

Over one-fifth (about 20%) of these patients had been classified as “very urgent” or “urgent” during triage, which indicates that their condition is potentially life-threatening or could put the patient’s life in danger.

In his viewpoint, overcrowded hospital emergency rooms are the cause for untreated patients leaving, a result he blames on the shortage of family doctors.

“One in five Quebecers still doesn’t have a family doctor, and in Montreal it’s nearly one in three. Emergency rooms therefore become the health care system entry point for many patients,” wrote Déry.

The study recommends expanding the scope of practice of nurse practitioners and pharmacists, thus reducing patients visits to emergency rooms.

Another suggestion is for the Quebec government to end medical school admissions quotas. “A surplus of doctors would be a happy problem and one that Quebec is far from having,” wrote Déry.

Highlights of the MEI Study:

• One in five Quebeccers still don’t have a family doctor.
• In Montreal, it’s nearly one in three.
• Each year, Quebec emergency rooms receive some 3.7 million visitors.
• About one patient in 10 (nearly 380,000) leave Quebec ERs without having been attended to by a doctor and without having been redirected.
• Fifty-five per cent of Quebecers visiting emergency rooms are assigned a priority level of 4 or 5, which generally corresponds to a condition that can be treated in a clinic.
• The median length of stay for patients on stretchers is the same as it was fifteen years ago.
• The stay for ambulatory patients on stretchers has increased by 50 per cent.
• Shortly after New Year’s, the occupation rate of many emergency rooms exceeded 150%. Some reached 200%, and one Montreal hospital even registered a rate of 250%.

View the full study at MEI