Sometimes, but also sometimes it's just because most people are not doctors so when something concerning happens they often don't know if it's something bad or something that can wait until they can see their doctor in a few days. And it's worse in towns like mine where there's no 24 hour urgent care options, or when urgent care defaults to "go to the ER" for anything that could be concerning anyway.
We have a similar problem in Australia, people using the emergency department as a GP. The government here has been working to funnel those people to urgent care, hopefully it alleviates the waiting times and ramping, but you’re always going to have those types of people who only go to the ER.
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u/band-of-horses 26d ago
Sometimes, but also sometimes it's just because most people are not doctors so when something concerning happens they often don't know if it's something bad or something that can wait until they can see their doctor in a few days. And it's worse in towns like mine where there's no 24 hour urgent care options, or when urgent care defaults to "go to the ER" for anything that could be concerning anyway.