Nearly 143,000 patients in British Columbia left emergency rooms without receiving treatment in 2024, according to a report released Thursday by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).
Of 2.6 million ER visits in B.C. last year, 142,961 ended with patients leaving before care was provided. That accounted for 5.5% of visits, a 71.6% increase since 2019.
Across Canada, emergency departments recorded 16.3 million visits in 2024. Of those, 1,267,736 patients left untreated, or 7.8% of visits — about 1 in 13. The number of patients leaving untreated nationwide has risen 35.6% since 2019. The report noted that Saskatchewan and New Brunswick’s Vitalité Santé health network did not provide 2024 data in time for publication.
“These patients are not leaving because they feel better, but because the system is failing them,” said Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at the MEI and author of the report. “Thousands of British Columbians are being denied access to care each year.”
The study said B.C. does not track the severity of cases among patients who leave untreated, even though many have already gone through triage. This lack of information leaves policymakers and hospital administrators in the dark about where to target resources.
The MEI warned that untreated patients often face worsening conditions, which can lead to more complex cases. A U.S. study cited in the report found that 55% of patients who left an ER without treatment sought medical care within three weeks.
To reduce the problem, the MEI recommends expanding access to primary care. Suggestions include increasing the use of nurse practitioner clinics, granting pharmacists broader scope of practice, and creating non-governmental immediate care centres for non-life-threatening cases, based on the French model.
“Solving the crisis in primary care is essential if we want to keep patients from continuing to fall through the cracks,” Faubert said. “Policymakers must find the political courage to open up healthcare delivery to independent and alternative providers, or else this crisis is bound to get worse.”
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. The full report is available here.
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