Emergency departments at the breaking point?

OTTAWA – In what seems to have become the new normal, emergency departments in hospitals coast-to-coast remain crammed with patients who are waiting longer than ever to receive care.

From Carbonear, N.L., where a man recently died of a heart attack during a 10-hour wait to see a doctor, to Calgary, where a woman pleaded “please don’t let me die” during the hours she bled onto a stretcher in the ER, hospitals are bursting at the seams as backlogs and access issues affect patient flow.

“I think we’re close to the breaking…