Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for coming.
I'll start with you, Dr. Gill. We have something in common. I'm an emergency physician. I worked in emergency departments in Winnipeg for 20 years. Much of what you were describing about the challenges of emergency departments resonated a lot with me. We find that when they cut front-line services, people come to the emergency department to fill the gaps. When they cut in-hospital services and you can't admit them, they basically can't go anywhere. I've always called the emergency department the only place that can never say no.
We often find directives, particularly from administration, to increase the flow. They'll have all sorts of spreadsheets to show the flow isn't the way it should be, but then we're told not to make excuses when we tell them we don't have the resources to increase the flow.
What would you tell administration of hospitals about this? Do you think this attitude of leaving it for the emergency department to figure out is making the problem worse?