Grieving parents who lost their nine-year-old boy last week say their son died after a severe asthma attack made worse by wildfire smoke engulfing parts of British Columbia.

Staying in the ER for hours or even days waiting for a hospital bed should be seen by Canadians as unacceptable, says an emergency physician. But what’s the solution for ‘waiting-room medicine’?

Emergency rooms across Canada are facing a growing crisis — staffing shortages, burnout, worsening wait times, closures, a lack of adequate funding and a surge of patients seeking urgent care threatening to overwhelm a system on the brink of collapse.