Researchers say prevailing theme of survey is ‘broken’ health-care system pushing physicians to the brink
Lauren Pelley
CBC News
Posted: Jul 27, 2026
Dr. Kaitlin Stockton has watched far too many patients suffer in overflowing emergency departments.
The Vancouver-based physician has given patients she just met a cancer diagnosis, with little privacy in the middle of a noisy room. She’s cared for a man with an intracranial brain bleed on an ambulance stretcher in a hallway. And she can’t shake the memory of one patient who had septic shock after spending eight hours in a waiting room, dangerously close to death.
Those kinds of harrowing experiences take a toll on emergency physicians, Stockton said, and there have been too many to count. At least five of her colleagues have left in the last few years.
Now, a new national survey shows the problem goes beyond any one hospital or province.
One out of every 10 emergency physicians in Canada have left their specialty while the vast majority of others are reducing their hours or taking time off to manage burnout, the results suggest.
Read more at CBC
