Crowds can be a killer ...

HOSPITAL emergency department overcrowding is responsible for at least as many deaths every year as occur on Australian roads, doctors say.

In a damning series of reports in the Medical Journal of Australia, emergency medicine specialists suggest around 1500 Australian deaths could be avoided annually if the problem was appropriately addressed.

They say emergency department overcrowding results in increased medical errors, delayed treatment, more complications and less frequent and inadequate pain control.

The specialists say ....