I’m with Slinking_ferret on this one. Often, people go straight to the emergency room when they could have gone to their local Immediate Care, or other such facility. The hospital in my town is terrible. They have people with severe injuries lined up waiting to be treated, and it’s partially due to the number of others who come in seeking medical treatment they could have gotten elsewhere.
The emergency room is for emergencies. I think the program you heard was trying to stress this fact. A lot of the time, people can use something called “common sense” and discern whether or not they’re in such bad condition that they need to be taken to the ER. There are some cases where people don’t know what they’re experiencing. And yes, I agree it’s better to be safe instead of sorry. Having said that, though, people abuse the system. Whether they want to admit they do or not, it’s true.