What Part of "Emergency" Do we not understand?

From todays Globe and Mail:

"More than half of Canadians seeking treatment at hospital emergency rooms are there for less than urgent conditions, a new report said Wednesday."

And we wonder why Health Care in this country is sky rocketing beyond control. I realize that it is currently, very difficult to find a "family Physician" in many area's of the country. This is far from a good excuse to run to the emerg for every little medical need that may arise. Have these people not heard of Medicenters?My family doc retired a few years ago, and to be honest I have not gone looking for a new one. If I come up with something medical that I can't handle on my own, I simply drive to the nearest medicenter and get checked out. Yes, the waiting time can be very long if you are suffering from something minnor. I have found through the years that most of them do a remarkable job of "triage". I have gone in with severe flew symptoms and have waited three hours. Is that exceptable? I think so, as the people that were taken care of before me were in worse shape than I from what I have seen. I have also gone in with a large gash in my arm. I was in and sewn up in minutes. The best example of medicenters "triage" I can give you from personal expierence was almost four years ago. My daughter had what appeared at first to be a bad flew. I had her stay home from school that morning. She called me at work in the afternoon crying. I rushed home to find her almost barely able to move. I picked her up and took her to the a medicenter that was just five minutes away. As soon as I carried her in they immediately took her into a room and a doctor was there in seconds. Without hesitation the Doctor gave my daughter a needle which later I found out was the reason she did so well in the end. He said he could call for an amulance but that I could drive her to the nearest hospital faster than they could get to the medicenter. Although I was panicking, and still not really sure what was wrong, I followed the doctors instructions and took her to the emerg at the Sturgeon Hospital in St. Albert, Alberta. The doctor from the medicenter had called ahead and informed them we were coming. They had a team waiting for us when I pulled up to the emerg doors. They wisked my daughter inside and began treating her. This is when I was informed that my daughter had meningitis. To this day I cannot thank any of the healthcare proffesionals that were involved enough. Especially that one doctor at the medicenter. Unfortunately, things happened so fast that day I never did get his name and the next month was spent in the intensive care at the UofA hospital beside my daughter. When I did think of thanking him, he had moved on from the medicenter and they could not release to me any information to contact him. As mentioned, because of this doctors quick diagnosis and descions my daughter was one of the very few inflicted with this horrible bug that survived with very little reprecusions. More than not, amputations if not death is the result of meningitis. My daughter was 13 when this happened. She is now going on 19 and she still has all her parts she came into this world with. Sometimes I think she did suffer some brain damage, but I'm told this is just normal "teen" behavior.

My point is, the emergency room should be for EMERGECIES only. IF you are not bleeding profusely or close to death, head over to nearest medicenter or your family doctor. Leave the emerg for the people that it was intended for, the seriously ill and injured. I'm sure this way those folks will be able to do a better job for those who truely need them and it might even save the system a ton of cash.