A new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that 15 per cent of visits to Canadian ERs between April 2023 and March of 2024 could potentially have been managed through primary care.

And of those 15 percent, more than half were for conditions that could have been managed virtually.

Sunita Karmakar-Hore of CIHI says that shows how important access to primary care providers is, and how greater access can help to free up wait times and resources in emergency departments.

But she says, the issue goes far beyond that.

Emergency Department overcrowding is multi-faceted says Karmakar-Hore, “and really goes beyond primary care.”

Numbers provided to VOCM News in October from NL Health Services showed that wait times for patients triaged as urgent waited an average of 6 and a half hours to be seen in the ER, while non-urgent patients waited about 8 and a half hours.

Newfoundland and Labrador does not report data to CIHI.