Doctor says NL Urgent Care clinics won’t reduce emergency room wait times

An emergency doctor in St. John’s says immediate care is needed Center (UCC) A nice idea but they won’t reduce wait times in hospital emergency departments.

“They have value, but their value is not in reducing wait times in emergency medicine,” said Dr. Scott Wilson, a member of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians who works at St. Clair Mercy Hospital.

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Officer HWe have repeatedly said that UCC will help doctors treat emergencies more quickly.

“This will allow emergency rooms to focus on emergency care and urgent care centers to move people through the emergency department more quickly,” said then-Health Minister Tom Osborne in 2024, when the UCC on Stavanger Drive was being developed.

Dr. Greg Brown, senior medical director for the eastern-urban region of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, who was present at the 2024 announcement, reinforced that message.

“(An urgent care center) reduces backlogs and blockages in emergency departments. So it should also improve access for people with very serious illnesses. So, it’s good news all around,” Brown said.

Wilson agrees that UCCs are a good thing for patients who need urgent care, such as care for a few stitches, a sprain or an ear ache, but they won’t reduce wait times in emergency departments because the patients who need urgent care or primary care aren’t causing the problem.

“It would be beneficial for patients to have some primary care evaluation and if they find it too difficult to deal with urgent care, they will be sent to the emergency room anyway,” Wilson said.

He said the problem isn’t that waiting rooms are filled with patients who don’t have family doctors or who don’t need emergency care. Wilson said research shows these people make up less than five percent of all visits to emergency departments.

The problem is overcrowding inside the hospital, the beds inside the hospital are full, Wilson said. Some of those beds are occupied by patients who need emergency care and others waiting to be moved to long-term care.

Wilson said, “Over 90 percent of the beds designed to handle emergency room patients are filled with inpatients. So when we don’t have the space to do it because of overcrowding, we can’t do the work we’re expected to do. What’s leading to longer wait times is the fact that we don’t have the beds to admit people.”

“Hospitalized patients tend to stay in our area. That’s why people have longer wait times, ten, 12 and 24-hour waits in emergency rooms. So overcrowding has to be addressed. Urgent care centers won’t do anything to do that.”

This has an acute impact, causing problems such as unloading delays, where patients wait in ambulances outside hospitals. Those patients don’t get the care they need and first responders who are with them can’t respond to other emergencies.

Doctor fears disaster

Over the past three decades Wilson has worked in twelve emergency departments in two provinces. He has seen firsthand patients in Newfoundland and Labrador waiting unacceptable amounts of time in emergency departments. While this isn’t a new problem, Wilson said it’s especially bad now.

Last week, the government of Alberta ordered investigation into a man’s death Waiting in the emergency room. Wilson fears this is something that could happen in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Wilson said, “We already have several cases of patients dying in the waiting rooms of emergency departments across the country. The numbers game will eventually catch up to us.”

The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians is calling for an overhaul of the emergency care system and has written a comprehensive report called M:Power: The Future of Emergency Care. The more than 300-page report details the challenges facing emergency departments and makes recommendations to make them work better.

Wilson has a message for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador and its health authority.

“If things don’t change, we will see an unfortunate situation in this province. So we are calling on the authorities and the people to act with more decisiveness,” he said.

“Our national body is willing, able and eager to partner with you so we can try to avoid these future, avoidable deaths,” said Wilson, a member of the association’s public affairs committee.

Wilson ‘absolutely right’: NLHS CEO

In an interview with CBC News on Monday afternoon, NLHS CEO Pat Parfrey said Wilson’s assessment about overcrowding in acute care beds was correct.

Parfrey said, “He’s absolutely not right about that. The main problem with getting people to the emergency room is getting a bed in the hospital. And if there are 100 percent of the people there, there are no beds, and as a result the person stays in the emergency room and then they keep increasing.”

“We are certainly very active in the area of ​​trying to get more acute care beds and improve discharge facilities within hospitals.”

Dr. Dick Barter, physician lead for clinical efficiency, said teams are working to reduce wait times in emergency rooms and deal with what he calls “bed block.”

“Once the decision is made to admit you, you will likely be in the emergency department for 24 hours or longer,” he said. “We’re trying to get that time down to no more than 12 hours, which will get us back to national standards.”

In a statement, the provincial government said another urgent care center is expected to open on Topsail Road in late 2026 and planning work is also beginning on a new urgent care center for Conception Bay South.

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