You'd think the alternative was "take a number.". The next question I have is not how long till they noticed, but how long did it take for him to expire when he went to the desk? But even then hospital employees should be more observant. Either that or have a computer system in place to say who is still stuck in triage and for how long? And starting to put out... A yellow alert (Star Trek reference) if they have been there for more than... 3 hours let's say. And a red alert for more than... 6 hours. Needless to say priority for children and patients who require immediate children.

Worst part, the 33 hours before someone noticed, if someone introduced Ralph Klein's third way policy, it could easily have been 33 days.

Bob, if you think that is bad, just wait until "Obamacare" kicks in full force in the USA. At present no one in the US is refused medical attention of some kind. With the massive forced tax on EVERYONE there, those who can't afford the massive tax (forced premiums) will not only get no treatment, they will go to JAIL to die of whatever ails them. There aren't enough doctors now. Just like the "140 clinics" promised by Redford, there won't be anyone to staff the hospitals and clinics. They'll have to open Alcatraz again to house the "criminals" who can't afford the huge medical tax. Worst part, under Obamacare, the 33 hours could be a LOT MORE than 33 days. Of course after the monster uneccesary power lines those on fixed incomes will die of heat this summer and freeze in the winter.

When you insist as a country, like North Korea and Cuba in only having one provider of health care and no accountablity, this is the type of service you get. Don't lke it? To bad!
I have generally been happy with the Medical care in the hospital in Alberta, but have had bad experiences in emergency. I remeber a few years back my daughter banged her head. We went to emergency and waited, and waiting and waited...and finally left. There was ALWAYS going to be someone deemed to be of greater importance than my toddler. At the very least, the system needs to have a system that tracks how long you have waited.

I remember a couple of years back, I had to take my younger brother (in his late 50's) in to emergency in Calgary. He was in severe pain throughout his whole upper body,..so severe that he couldn't sit up in a chair and had to lie down on the reclined car seat to get him there.
Not one to be inclined to take any pain killers, in fact advocating against their use, it was everything I could do to get him to even go to the hospital.
6 hours of waiting in the standard hospital waiting chairs did little to make his visit any better.
When he finally did get to see someone,...they looked at him,..in very rough condition, with his full beard, and his longer unkept hair and had decided that he was just there to get some drugs and there was nothing wrong with him. Well, nothing could be further from the truth.
My brother is a practising naturopathic practitioner, with 15-16 years of experience, multiple modalities courses, and a vast knowledge of natural health care and natural treatments, who has helped many, many people over the years in his consultations.
What "he" DID NOT know, was that a few days earlier, when a rolling office chair had moved out from under him, that he had fractured/cracked a vertebrae in his lower back when he went to sit down and landed on his butt "hard" on the floor.
Multiple "waits" in various doctors offices and even pain treatment centers did not reveal his problem and it was not until a "nurse" reviewed his nuclear bone scan, did "she" reveal that he had a fracture....even the doctors did not catch it.
What was really disturbing though, was the treatment/observations in this "emergency" ward which were not based on anything except the way he "looked" in his severe state of pain to the "caregivers". It only reviewed his and my observations that you may not get helped at the "emergency",...only because of the way you look!