[NuclearFart]

As posters have pointed out, it's not logistically reasonable to accept immediate and full responsibility for every single organism that passes through the hospital doors, especially a department as chaotic as the ER. Unless they arrive in an ambulance, the patients have to at least do something to help themselves, as we don't have the resources to hold everybodies hand as soon as they step through the door.

And of course theres the issue of tolerating people who abuse the waiting room, which complicates things even further. I think this played a much larger role in why this happend, then people are willing to admit.

Lastly, I don't think a GP phone call would have made much difference. Major ER departments are way too busy to keep an eye out for one person in the waiting room, let alone to accurately disseminate the message from a ER doc who took the call, down to the nurses and finally to the receptionist. Sending a stable patient via taxi from a clinic (especially on a native reserve) to the ER is actually quite common, and it's worked flawlessly thousands of times, until now.