Do I go to the ER? Here’s when you should and should not go to the hospital – CTV
November 02, 2025
It’s flu season, and for Montreal’s emergency rooms (ERs), that can mean overflowing waiting rooms full of people who could have recovered at home.
Dr. Mitch Shulman, an emergency medicine specialist and attending physician with the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), points out that healthy people suffering from seasonal colds run the risk of catching something much worse by congregating in an ER.
“Is there such a thing as a man cold? I leave that up to you,” he quips. “If you’re a normal, healthy person and you have a cold, a cold will last five to seven days if I treat it; a cold will last five to seven days if I don’t treat it.”
