A recent study highlights the increasing number of Canadians visiting emergency rooms with symptoms such as abdominal pain or unexplained weight loss, only to be told they may have cancer and sent home without clear follow-up plans. The research focuses on the experiences of emergency doctors in Ontario, revealing a troubling situation in a healthcare system facing significant challenges.

Emergency physicians report feeling overwhelmed as they manage patients with suspected cancer. Many patients leave the emergency department without knowing when they will receive necessary follow-up care, such as scans or biopsies. This uncertainty has been described as a "gut punch" for patients, who often hear, "I don’t know when you’re going to be seen."

The study indicates that one in five Canadians lacks a regular doctor, contributing to lengthy wait times for cancer-related tests. As a result, receiving a cancer diagnosis in the emergency department is becoming increasingly common. Once diagnosed, patients frequently do not have a clear path for further medical evaluation or treatment.

Emergency doctors express concern that patients without a primary care physician are at risk of being "lost to follow-up." This term refers to situations where referrals are mishandled, such as lost faxed letters or incorrect contact information. Research has shown that patients diagnosed with cancer through emergency services often face worse outcomes, including higher stages of diagnosis and increased mortality rates.

The study's authors noted that most emergency departments lack systems to ensure proper follow-up for discharged patients. One physician pointed out, "There is a huge portion of the population that are unattached, and they don’t have any primary care follow-up."

The inefficiencies in the healthcare system are pushing patients with suspected cancer to seek help in emergency rooms. Many individuals struggle to access family doctors or face long wait times for specialist appointments, CT scans, or biopsies. Dr. Keerat Grewal, the study's lead author and an emergency doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, stated, "They just can’t get in, so the only other resource available to them is the emergency department."

Doctors described the process of navigating cancer care as confusing and inconsistent, with frequent refusals of referrals from specialists. Emergency physicians cannot directly refer patients to oncologists without a tissue biopsy, which requires another specialist to perform the biopsy and follow up on the results. One doctor remarked, "The emergency department is one silo, and then oncology is another silo, and you can’t really move between them unless you have a tissue diagnosis."

The study also noted that family doctors face similar challenges when trying to refer patients with cancer symptoms to specialists. Dr. Grewal emphasized that the emergency department is not designed to handle these complex cases effectively.

Earlier research by the same team found that approximately one-third of cancer patients in Ontario had visited an emergency department within 90 days of their diagnosis, likely due to cancer-related symptoms. This trend underscores the urgent need for improvements in the healthcare system to better support patients with suspected cancer.