Reports are surfacing of staff shortages in emergency rooms in smaller communities. There are backlogs of patients waiting in emergency rooms until they are admitted to a hospital ward acute care bed. It is a chain of events and circumstance stemming in part from a shortage of these acute care beds and the result is a domino effect through the system.

The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians has issued a new position paper on emergency department (ED) overcrowding. The paper includes recommendations to address the immediate situation in Canada’s emergency departments, as well as some solutions for the longer-term.

• Dr. Alan Drummond, Perth emergency room doctor and spokesperson for Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians