Growing and aging population driving long ER wait times on P.E.I., says N.B. doctor [Video]

Long emergency room wait times on P.E.I. are a symptom of a health-care system struggling to keep up with population growth and an aging demographic, says an emergency physician in Saint John, N.B.

Health P.E.I. issued a media release last week saying that hospitals across the Island are over capacity, leading to increased emergency department wait times. The release said that emergency response measures are being implemented to improve patient flow.

Dr. Fraser Mackay, chair of the rural, remote, and small urban section of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, said many hospitals across Canada face the same challenges.

“The basics of it is, quite simply, a supply-and-demand mismatch that has been growing steadily for a couple of decades in terms of population growth and aging,” Mackay said.

“We have one of the lowest bed-to-population ratios for hospitals in developed nations, and our long-term care capacity and aging-at-home capacity and support for that aspect of things …