A long-time emergency-room physician says continued delays in getting patients admitted into hospital beds is causing widespread frustration among health care workers.

Dr. Scott Wilson, who worked in emergency care for decades, says while staff are used to busy emergency rooms, the problem of patients being held in emergency while waiting for access to beds is bogging down the system – and getting worse.

He says he’s worked in emergency rooms where over “90 per cent of my beds are consumed with inpatients. So the beds that are designed to see the volumes of patients…legitimately registering to be assessed by emergency room personnel, they can’t be accessed, because all the beds are filled with inpatients. And that’s what overcrowding is.”

He says until overcrowding is addressed in what he calls a very firm way, wait times will be negatively affected “indefinitely.” He says frustrated health care workers are leaving because overcrowding is a symptom of blockages to access throughout the health care system.

“It’s gotten to the point that I’ve never seen it this bad,” says Wilson. “It’s also having a major impact on the people who provide care because they’re just so frustrated with their jobs they want to exit the profession altogether, which is a travesty.”