PEI·NewA report published by the Montreal Economic Institute says Prince Edward Island has the highest rates in Canada of people leaving the emergency department before seeing a nurse or doctor.Report finds 14% of Island emergency room visitors left without receiving careJenna Banfield · CBC News · Posted: Sep 19, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoP.E.I. tops nation for patients leaving ER without being treated, report findsA new report from from the Montreal Economic Institute says the number of patients leaving the ER without being treated has gone up on P.E.I. — and the province has the worst rate in the country. CBC’s Gwyneth Egan reports. A report published by the Montreal Economic Institute says Prince Edward Island has the highest rates in Canada of people leaving the emergency department before seeing a nurse or doctor.The institute received its data from Health P.E.I. through a freedom of information request.It found that last year nearly 1.3 million people in emergency rooms across Canada left before receiving care.According to the report, 14.15 per cent of ER visitors in P.E.I. did not receive treatment, nearly double the national average of 7.78 per cent. Manitoba was the province with the second highest rate at 13.23 per cent.Renaud Brossard, the Montreal Economic Institute’s vice-president of communications, says people relying on the ER for non-urgent issues ‘needlessly’ clog up emergency departments. (Zoom)Renaud Brossard, the institute’s vice-president of communications, said the typical reasons for leaving were long wait times or that no one was available to treat them.”I think it’s no secret, if you need emergency treatment in Canada, you’d better be a very, very patient person.” Brossard told CBC News.Lack of access to primary careBrossard said a lot of visits to the ER are non-emergency issues, so many of the patients were considered lower priority.”These are issues that could be solved by a family doctor, that should be solved by a family doctor, but unfortunately due to a lack of access to family medicine or certain urgent needs after hours, patients end up at the ER,” he said.” Dr. Ken Farion, Health P.E.I.’s medical director for hospital services and patient flow, echoed that statement. “Unfortunately with our health system, some [patients] feel that that’s their only option to seek care for any problem,” Farion said, adding that there is a gap in primary care in the province.”We don’t have a lot of other options in terms of walk-in clinics in many of our communities as another option…. We also have had some challenges about staffing our emergency departments in general.”Efforts to reduce the issueFarion said Islanders without a family doctor have access to virtual services like Maple and Pharmacy Plus for some care options.”There’s obviously active recruitment underway to try and increase the number of family physicians and nurse practitioners to provide primary care,” he said. WATCH | Could artificial intelligence solve P.E.I.’s long ER wait times?:Could artificial intelligence solve P.E.I.’s long ER wait times?Researchers from Memorial University in Newfoundland received an invite from Health P.E.I. to discuss ways to improve patient flow at Prince County Hospital in Summerside. While it wasn’t the focus of his presentation, Dr. Christopher Patey is an expert on using AI in medical settings, and says the technology can help with triage in the emergency room and allow doctors to spend more time with patients. CORRECTION (January 24, 2024): A previous version of this video said that Dr. Patey was invited to talk specifically about using AI in the emergency room. That was not the case.Improving access to primary care is key to alleviating the problem, said Brossard, which can be done by expanding nurse practitioner clinics and pharmacist-led clinics.”If we can open up an additional stream for patients to go through through pharmacists, which are, quite frankly, the experts on medicine, on medication, well, these different streams can lighten the load on emergency rooms so that they can concentrate on patients that have proper emergencies and needs that only an emergency room can meet.” He said some hospitals in Alberta have partnered with pharmacist-led clinics, but added that these options won’t solve every issue with overcrowding in emergency rooms. But they can lighten the load on ER doctors, he said, allowing them to focus on cases that require their expertise.According to the province’s most recent numbers, more than 35,000 people remain on P.E.I.’s patient registry, waiting to be matched with a primary care provider. ABOUT THE AUTHORJenna Banfield is an associate producer for CBC Prince Edward Island. She can be reached at jenna.banfield@cbc.caWith files from Gwyneth Egan
P.E.I. has worst rate of patients leaving ERs without being treated, says think tank
