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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Canadian Convulsions > Canada's exploding crime rates - TUVM Justin; NDP Leader to vote against his own words in Parliament

 

Considering that crime rates in Democratic American states are also exploding, this is particularly frightening news.

Dr. Leslyn Lewis

@LeslynLewis

Violent crime rates in Canada are now 14% higher than the US. In fact, violent crime in Canada is up 50% since 2015. Canadians are paying the price for this government's reckless soft-on-crime policies that have made our country a more dangerous place over the last 9 years.

1:33 / 2:09

2:43 PM · Nov 28, 2024

·

17.9K

Views

NDP won’t support Tory non-confidence motion

that uses Singh’s own words

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he won’t play Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s games by voting to bring down the government on an upcoming non-confidence motion.

The Conservatives plan to introduce a motion that quotes Singh’s own criticism of the Liberals, and asks the House of Commons to declare that it agrees with Singh and has no confidence in the government.

I have read the non-confidence motion written in Singh's own words, but neglected to save it. Now you cannot find a copy of it anywhere, or any link to it in the many stories about it. This is Canada's far-left media ! 

Singh wont support his own words and bring down the hapless Liberal government, at least until February when he becomes eligible for his Parliamentary pension.

The motion is expected to be introduced on Thursday and the debate and vote are set for Monday.

Singh says he is not going to vote non-confidence and trigger an election when he believes Poilievre would cut programs the NDP fought for, like dental care and pharmacare.

The non-confidence vote was scheduled after Speaker Greg Fergus intervened to pause a filibuster on a privilege debate about a green technology fund.

The Conservatives have said they would only end that debate if the NDP agree to topple the government or if the Liberals turn over unredacted documents at the centre of the parliamentary gridlock.

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Canadian Convulsions > NDP Break with Liberals doesn't change much; Even the LGBTQ2 lobby is turning on Trudeau - terrified of common sense

 

‘The Deal Is Done’: NDP Breaks With Liberals,

Opening Early Election Prospects

The NDP has announced it’s pulling out of its agreement keeping the minority Liberals in power, opening the possibility the government could fall before the next scheduled election in 2025.

“The deal is done,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a social media post on Sept. 4, adding he notified Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the same day.

Singh said the Liberals are “too beholden to corporate interests” and that only the NDP can stop the Conservatives.

“Together, we can and will stop Conservative cuts, we can deliver relief and restore hope, fix health care, build homes you can afford, stop price gouging,” he said.

You have had ten years to do that and you just made it worse. Why would anyone give you another 4 years?

Trudeau reacted by saying he hopes the NDP will remain focused on how to deliver for Canadians.

“I’m focused on Canadians, I'll let the other parties focus on politics,” he said during a press conference in Newfoundland and Labrador on Sept. 4.

The major announcement came a few days after Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre made public a letter he sent to Singh, asking him to break his agreement with Trudeau.

Poilievre said Singh had promised the agreement would make life more affordable for Canadians while the opposite had occurred.

Poilievre’s office reacted to Singh’s announcement calling it a “media stunt.”

“Singh refuses to state whether the NDP will vote with non-confidence to cause a carbon tax election at the first chance,” said spokesperson Sebastian Skamski in a statement.

The NDP entered a supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals in March 2022, providing support on confidence votes in the House of Commons in exchange for prioritizing items on the NDP’s agenda.

He could have landed a cabinet post, but, apparently, didn't think of it.

Most of the items in the agreement have been fulfilled to date, including implementing dental care, tabling a pharmacare bill, and passing legislation banning replacement workers during strikes and lockouts. The deal was scheduled to last until June 2025, at the end of the spring parliamentary session.

The NDP will not be bound to support the Liberals in confidence votes when the new sitting starts on Sept. 16.

The first set confidence vote pertains to the budget, which will be tabled in early spring 2025. Otherwise the ruling party can designate certain votes in the House as confidence votes, and opposition MPs can also table non-confidence motions.

The passing of a non-confidence vote typically leads to the resignation of the government and the holding of an election.

So, it is obvious that Singh can vote against Liberal motions without collapsing parliament until the spring, at which point Singh will have 6 years in Parliament and qualify for his pension. Good move!

LGBTQ2 activists call on Trudeau to step down to prevent Poilievre leadership

LGBTQ2 activists say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to remain the Liberal leader through to the next election, despite dwindling public support, is putting them at risk.

Queer advocates say a Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would be dangerous for the LGBTQ2 community, and some are calling on Trudeau to step aside to give the Liberals a better chance at winning the next election — which must happen by Oct. 20, 2025.

Sarah Worthman, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Queer Research Initiative, says she’s seriously concerned about the potential harm of a Conservative government for LGBTQ2 Canadians.

She points to Poilievre’s comments saying minors should not have access to puberty blockers and transgender athletes should be barred from women’s sports and changing rooms.

Worthman says the Liberals would have a better chance at beating the Conservatives in an election if they replaced Trudeau, but she didn’t say with whom.

2:43

‘Shame’: Trudeau responds to Poilievre remark that ‘female spaces should be exclusively for females’

A spokesperson for the Conservatives did not directly respond to questions but instead sent an email with a series of transcribed answers that Poilievre gave to journalists between June 2023 and February 2024 on LGBTQ2 issues.

The answers include Poilievre’s call for Canada to continue offering refuge for persecuted LGBTQ2 people around the world, and that “female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males.”

Pollievre is right that Trudeau is not interested in protecting kids. In nearly 10 years he has done absolutely nothing to protect kids from child sexual abuse. Canada may be the only country in the western world that has completely ignored the phenomenal growth in child sex abuse in the past 15 years.

1:01

Poilievre weighs in on Alberta trans policies for kids, says he’s against puberty blockers

Worthman and Celeste Trianon, who runs a centre that helps trans people in Quebec who wish to change their legal name or gender marker (?), say the Liberals should follow the lead of the U.S. Democratic party, which has seen a swell of support since replacing President Joe Biden with Vice-President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee in November’s presidential election.

Randy Boissonnault, a federal cabinet minister who was previously Trudeau’s special adviser on LGBTQ2 issues, says queer people are right to be worried about what may happen if Poilievre wins the upcoming election.

However, Boissonnault says Trudeau is the best person to lead the party through another campaign, adding that the prime minister is a champion of LGBTQ2 rights.

He just appointed a man from Alberta to the Senate. A man who is firmly for the transitioning of gender dysphoric children from an early age. Such a man does not represent the feelings and beliefs of Albertans. This is a slap in the face of Alberta's heroic Premier, Danielle Smith.

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