Older Canadians are flooding emergency departments — not because of poor choices, but because the rest of the healthcare system has left them with nowhere else to turn. A new statement from the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians points to long-term care shortfalls and gaps in home care as the real culprits behind ED overcrowding. Experts are calling on governments to invest across the full continuum of care, not just patch up emergency rooms.
Canada's emergency departments are overwhelmed, and older adults are at the center of the crisis — accounting for 20%–40% of all ED visits nationwide. But according to a new statement from the Geriatric Emergency Medicine Committee of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP), the root cause isn't the patients or the EDs themselves. It's a cascade of system failures: insufficient long-term care beds, underfunded home care, fragmented community services, and a primary care system that leaves too many people with no other option but the ER.
The consequences are serious. Prolonged ED boarding raises 30-day mortality, increases delirium risk, and extends hospital stays. Meanwhile, 10%–20% of inpatient hospital beds in Canada are occupied by patients who no longer need acute care but have nowhere safe to go — 84% of whom are older adults.
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Why it matters: Fixing Canada's ED crisis requires investing in home care, long-term care, and primary care — not just building more hospital beds. Countries like Denmark, which spends more than twice Canada's share on community and long-term care, have nearly eliminated the problem. The CAEP is urging a whole-system overhaul before the situation becomes irreversible.
