Canadian Convulsions > 142,000 patients left B.C. ERs untreated last year

 

Nearly 142,000 patients walked out of B.C. ERs

untreated last year

B.C. Conservative Freedom of Information request uncovers troubling 6-year trend showing numbers up 86% from 2018 to 2025

Mark Page
a day ago

More people than ever are leaving B.C.'s emergency rooms without receiving care, according to documents. (File photo/Black Press Media)

The number of people entering a B.C. emergency room and leaving without being seen by a doctor rose 86 per cent from 2018 to 2025, according to documents obtained by a freedom of information request filed by the B.C. Conservatives.

"And the numbers don't seem to be plateauing at all," said Brennan Day, the Conservatives' critic for Rural Health and Seniors' Health.

In the 2018/19 fiscal year, 76,157 patients left without being seen. By 2024/25, that number had risen to 141,962. During that timeframe, the total number of patients seen in emergency rooms did rise, but by only about 13 per cent, increasing to 2,595,219 in 2024/25.

The worst performers were Island Health, where the number of patients leaving without care more than doubled, and Fraser Health, where the number nearly doubled. 

Waits of more than eight hours are not unheard of in B.C., and the median time spent in the province's ERs last year was four hours and 13 minutes, according to a recent study by MEI, a think tank.

Day pointed out that while some people may leave because their sickness has subsided, that does not mean they don't need treatment.

"Everybody's had a random pain that, if you wait eight hours, it goes away," Day said. "It's not to say that the underlying cause of that pain is not serious. So, it's pushing people away from the health care system."

Health Ministry says people will not be turned away

The Ministry of Health blamed an increasing number of people seeking care and an uptick in sicker patients. A statement from the ministry also said that people who are the least sick are the most likely to leave, and nobody will be turned away if they want care.

"When patients first arrive at the ED [emergency department], they are triaged and seen based on acuity," an emailed statement from the ministry said. "The sickest patients are always seen first. Patients are never turned away from the ED."

The statement added that certain patients, such as those experiencing chest pains, are encouraged not to leave before being seen.

The ministry is working to hire more doctors and nurses — including a highly publicized campaign to attract workers from the U.S. — and increased the number of acute care beds by 7.9 per cent in 2023. Some health authorities have also made average wait times available online this year to "help patients and their families make informed decisions about accessing care."

Doctors of BC, the advocacy organization representing the province's physicians, provided a statement to Black Press Media saying that it has been calling for an emergency department stabilization plan for some time to address broader dysfunction within hospitals.

"Emergency department overcrowding and long wait times can be symptoms of problems in other areas of the hospital, and solutions often require that these issues be addressed as well," the statement said. 

The organization contends that while the province's recent efforts to recruit U.S. doctors and fund a new medical school at Simon Fraser University are helpful, more needs to be done.

Day wants the province to pressure the federal government to speed up visa processing for international doctors. He also wants the government to do a better job of listening to its front-line workers, calling the current system in the health authorities a "bureaucratic quagmire."

"The bureaucrats are too self-absorbed in protecting their own positions to listen to the front-line doctors and nurses," he said.

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Bits and Bites from Around the World > Man, dog, and fishermen kill attacking black bear; 'No Danger' for boy surrounded by pack of wolves

 

Maple Ridge man and his dog survive bear attack

The bear died after a group of fishers helped the man fight it off

The News staffNov 23, 2024 10:38 AM

Ross Davies, a Maple Ridge wildlife photographer, captured this picture of a bear in 2019.Ross Davies/Special to The News

A man and his dog survived a black bear attack in Maple Ridge last week, after he and nearby bystanders fought it off. 

According to the Conservation Officer Service, on Wednesday, Nov. 20, a man was walking his off-leash dog along a trail near 240 Street around 2:30 p.m. when a black bear engaged the dog. 

"The owner was able to gain control of his dog, and attempted to leave when the bear re-engaged," reports the COS. 

The man, who is not identified, was injured when he fought with the bear. A group of nearby fishermen came to assist, and the bear died as a result. 

Now I'm curious. How did fisherman kill an angry black bear?

After investigating the incident, COS officers determined the bear was killed in self-defence, and so "no enforcement action will be taken in relation to this incident." 

The man suffered non-life threatening injuries. 

The deceased bear was taken to an Abbotsford lab to undergo a necropsy to determine if any factors may have affected the bear's behaviour. 

In a statement, the COS said despite the season bears are still active in many areas, such as where there are milder temperatures and the availability of attractants like garbage can delay hibernation. 

"The public is encouraged to take precautions in case of wildlife encounters, including being aware of your surroundings, leashing pets, and travelling in groups." 

According to the B.C. Conservation Foundation, black bears account for up to 25,000 calls to provincial conservation officers each year, and can "become more assertive or destructive when they have learned to associate humans and their activities with food." 

B.C. has among the highest population of black bears in the world, and the foundation estimates about 150,000 living in the province. 

People can better prevent encounters with black bears by talking and singing to avoid surprising an animal, managing attractants like garbage, keeping pets leashed, and carrying bear spray, according to the foundation. 

Animal organization says there was no direct

danger in boy’s confrontation with wolves

NL Times

There was no direct danger during a confrontation between a boy who was cycling and wolves in Woudenberg, Utrecht, last week Thursday, the Dutch Mammal Society has said. However, the organization did say that the situation was a problem as the wolves were within 30 meters of the boy, the province of Utrecht reported.

The incident allegedly happened on the Voskuilerdijk. The boy claims that he was cycling to school when ten wolves came out of a nearby bush before standing around him. The fright caused the boy to fall off his bike.

A passing driver honked his horn, which scared the wolves away, the boy said. The boy cycled home after this.

The Dutch Mammal Society analyzed the incident at the request of the province of Utrecht. Except for the boy’s statement, there is no other evidence, like DNA or camera footage, to prove this happened. The driver has also not come forward.

"What exactly happened cannot, therefore, be reconstructed according to the Mammal Society," the province said. But if the incident unfolded as this report indicates, there was no immediate danger, the province reported.

If the incident is true, the wolves are likely from the pack on Heuvelrug, Utrecht, where a maximum of seven wolves are living. "The fact that the boy thinks there were ten or more does not alter that prediction because it would have been an impressive event for the boy."

The Mammal Society again advised tracking all wolves. They believe this could have provided faster and more accurate information in this incident.

This was confirmed by the responsible deputy, Mirjam Sterk, during a committee meeting on Wednesday. The province is working on a license to catch, sedate, and track the pack of wolves on the Heuvelrug. The license was initially only requested for one wolf, which specialists claimed was causing trouble.

Sterk said that the province wants to use transmitters to get information about the animals so that action can be taken quickly if necessary.

SGP States Member Bertrick van den Dikkenberg said that these types of issues should not be taken lightly. Sterk replied by saying that this is certainly not the case. She said that she had contacted the boy's father about the Mammal Society's analysis and expressed commitment.

Arne Schaddelee of the ChristenUnie said that it is also important to take this into context. "What happened is very intense, and it is good to look at it in a healthy and critical way," Schaddelee said about the incident in Woudenberg. "But at the same time, we must also let the facts speak. And one of the facts is that 

no one has been fatally injured by the wolf in Europe for 40 years."

The province of Utrecht is advising children who are cycling through the forest areas to cycle in groups. “For kids younger than ten, the advice is to always have an adult cycle with you.”

Heuvelrug, Utrecht,

Bits and Bites > Narcan saves raccoon from probable fentanyl poisoning

 

I have done many stories on my other blog on the dangers (read - madness) of drugs and kids. Apparently, drugs and animals is now a thing.

Maple Ridge raccoon revived with Narcan

after suspected fentanyl poisoning

Ashley Bennett is used to seeing raccoons in her Maple Ridge, B.C., yard.

However, a recent incident has left her shaken.

Bennett moved into the home with her family in 2020 and found the raccoons when they dismantled a deck.

She said they have co-existed since then, with a rule for every family member not to touch or feed the animals.

They’ll actually sit on the tree and the dogs will be in the backyard,” Bennett said.

“There’s no growling, there’s no snarling, there’s no nothing… If I don’t see them for 24 hours, that’s suspicious. They are always around.”

Bennett had just returned from the school run last week when she found the mom and a baby raccoon unconscious, with one of the babies sleeping on the furniture.

She came outside and said the little raccoon didn’t stir at all.

“Its ears didn’t flutter, not anything, which is beyond uncommon,” Bennett said.

“So I sort of tiptoed up to it and nothing. And I began sort of poking it and scratching it on the head a little bit and it was completely silent.”

She called Critter Care Wildlife Society but they were not open so she called Dr. Adrian Walton at the Dewdney Animal Hospital.

He said she could bring the raccoon in.

“I took my cat out of its banana box that it sleeps in and picked up this raccoon, which was completely lifeless, flopped it into my arms and back into the box,” Bennett said.

“And I just carried the box out. I couldn’t find a cat carry case. I couldn’t find a kennel, anything.”

View image in full screen

The baby raccoon was sleeping on the patio furniture and could not be roused. Ashley Bennett

When she arrived at the vet, Walton took the baby into an examination room and Bennett said that what happened next was wild.

“I wasn’t in the room but starting from the outside, it was 30 seconds of silence to full chaos,” she said.

“There was glass breaking, food falling on the floor, what sounded like shelves being cleared off. People were not yelling, but you could hear the panic in the room.”

Walton said when the baby arrived at the clinic it was comatose.

“It was super cold. His heart rate was super low. Its pupils were dilated. We were significantly worried that this thing was dying as we spoke.”

Walton said he didn’t know what had happened to the raccoon but he was quickly able to rule out poison and other toxins due to the animal’s lack of symptoms.

“So one of the things we started thinking of was fentanyl,” he said.

“We decided to do a reversing agent, a.k.a. the veterinary version of Narcan.”

2:06

Vancouver Island cat put down after meth exposure

Walton said that created a reaction he was not expecting.

“The next thing we know, we have this raccoon rampaging around the clinic and all of us are trying to herd it into an exam room so that we could actually get it confined,” he said.

Walton and his staff scrambled to find a case in which to put the animal.

“By the time we got back to the exam room, it had basically knocked down every glass container we had and was trying to climb up our computer screen into this little nook that is in our exam rooms,” Walton said.

“And if we had gotten in there, we were not going to get it out easily.”

Donning protective gear, the staff were able to catch the little guy and start to put it into the cage.

“At which point it walked right in, turned around, grabbed the door by his hand and shut it,” Walton said.

“It’s like, ‘I’ve had enough of this’.”

They gave the raccoon Narcan again, sent him home with Bennett and Walton said they were prepared to go to Bennett’s house at the end of the day to administer Narcan to the rest but luckily that was not needed.

1:52

Family dog almost dies from drug overdose in Surrey

While this is the first raccoon they have revived with Narcan, Walton said over the last 18 years they have dealt with an increase in the number of animals, mostly pets, that have consumed narcotics.

But in this case, he said they believe it was fentanyl due to the response to Narcan.

“There are other drugs that it could have gone into that they would also recover with stimulation, but we had an animal that went from really lethargic to wide awake after Narcan application,” Walton said.

Bennett said the baby continued to sleep in her backyard for about 48 hours after she brought it home.

“I’m blown away that it is this close to home out where we are,” she said. “I never thought so. My kids walk to school. We have dogs we walk. This is devastating.”

She said all the raccoons have been back since and are accounted for and she hopes there are no further incidents.

“I’ve grown so fond of these guys, and I think that anybody who knows me knows how much I actually adore them,” Bennett said.

“So it was really sad. I was really panicked about it.”

Islam in British Columbia > What are they preaching in this Port Coquitlam mosque? Death to Christians and Jews!

 

B'nai Brith Canada

@bnaibrithcanada

Imam Adnan Abyat of the Al Hidiyah Mosque in Port Coquitlam has once again made highly inflammatory and dangerous statements during a recent sermon on August 2. His rhetoric promotes hatred and incites violence against Jews and Christians. In his sermon, Imam Abyat glorified martyrdom through violence, made hateful accusations, and called for the annihilation of Jews and Christians. This kind of hate speech and incitement is unacceptable and has no place in our society. B’nai Brith has taken immediate action and has reported these statements to the RCMP under section 319.2 wilful promotion of hatred against Jews and Christians. As a result, the RCMP is currently investigating. B’nai Brith Canada remains committed to standing against hate and ensuring the safety and security of all Canadian society. We will continue to monitor this situation closely and take all necessary actions to combat such hate speech.

Last edited12:21 PM · Aug 8, 2024

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