New data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows emergency departments are dealing with a record high number of visits, 16.1 million and climbing. And more numbers reveal the pressures that are leaving patients stuck in emergency departments for hours or days, putting them and health workers at risk.

In this episode, host Avis Favaro discusses the picture the data paints — with Dr. Fraser Mackay, an emergency physician and member of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians and Cheryl Chui, Director of Health System Analytics at CIHI. The problems aren’t just in how emergency departments are functioning, but in what’s happening beyond the department itself.

Canada has one of the lowest rates of hospital beds per population among OECD countries. And many of these beds are filled with patients waiting for discharge to other places.

The discussion looks at what’s driving the crisis and why solutions have been so difficult to implement.

Additional audio courtesy Global and CBC News.

This episode is available in English.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.

Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

How do you safeguard Canada’s public health in an era of unprecedented upheaval — from the growth of health misinformation and conspiracy theories to advice from Dr. Google and looming pandemics? That is the role of Canada’s new chief public health officer, Dr. Joss Reimer — a physician from Manitoba and former president of the Canadian Medical Association — who began her new job on April 1, 2026.

In this wide-ranging interview, host Avis Favaro talks with Dr. Reimer about the origins of her commitment to public service, how sleep deprivation and burnout were turning points in her career, what her work in Nairobi taught her about looking beyond our borders and how leading Manitoba’s COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce shifted how she communicates.

This episode is available in English.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.

Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

Every day across Canada, seniors who live in long-term care (LTC) homes are sent to hospital for medical care, some during their final days of life. In fact, according to new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, nearly 1 in 5 residents transferred from long-term care to the hospital die within a day — meaning they were likely near the end of their lives regardless of the urgent problem that led to the transfer. This raises the question, were these transfers necessary, ethical and what the residents really wanted?

Host Avis Favaro talks with Jill Oliver, an ethicist from the William Osler Health System in Brampton, Ontario, about a new program called POET, which stands for the Prevention Of Error-based Transfers. The aim: to make sure residents have their wishes respected, especially at the end of life. And 2 staff members at an LTC home that adopted POET — Lindsay Passfield and Lori Norris-Dudley — describe the profound difference the program has made in the lives and deaths of the residents they care for.

This episode is available in English

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.

Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.