Something must be done immediately to stop frustrated patients from leaving local emergency rooms untreated, a New Democrat MLA said Wednesday.

In a news release, Sackville-Cobequid MLA Dave Wilson, a paramedic, called on Health Minister Angus MacIsaac to address the increasingly dangerous situation of wait times at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax and other area hospitals.

"It is no longer possible to have any confidence that you can get urgent care when you need it in metro hospitals," Mr. Wilson said in the release. "Patients are waiting so long, they are giving up and going home."

A recent study by the Capital district health authority shows that from March 2003 to May of this year, 7.5 to 9.4 per cent of patients left the QEII emergency room without treatment, and 8.9 to 11.5 per cent gave up on the Cobequid Health Centre.

The study defines an acceptable number of patients who do not wait long enough for treatment to be about two per cent.

Mr. Wilson said the hospital staff he's spoken with claim this could lead to serious consequences.

"What's it going to take to get the minister to face that we have a dangerous situation here?" he said.

Geoff Wilson, a spokesman for the Capital district health authority, defended its hospitals' emergency room record, saying more recent figures show an improvement.

Between June and August, 4.7 per cent of patients left the QEII without being seen, 5.4 per cent left the Dartmouth General Hospital and 8.3 per cent walked out of the Cobequid Health Centre without being seen.

"We can't force people to stay," the authority spokesman said Wednesday.

"These figures are really a small portion of the total number of people who are flowing through our emergency departments."

Most people who leave hospitals before being treated aren't in serious need of help; they decide to wait to see their family physician or go to a clinic, he said.

But the study showed that during that 14-month period, patients classed as urgent cases, requiring treatment within 30 minutes, actually wait five to six times that long at the QEII and well above the 30-minute standard at the Dartmouth General, Cobequid and Hants hospitals.

"The fact that these patients go home without treatment doesn't mean they get better," the MLA said in the release.

"In fact, they might get much worse, and that concerns me. I hope it concerns this minister, too."

During the period covered in the study, the emergency rooms of the district's hospitals saw more than 142,650 patients.

These hospitals are aiming for the acceptable two per cent minimum, the authority spokesman said.

"We haven't achieved our target, but we are getting closer."