Dr. Kaitlin Stockton is an emergency physician, trauma team leader, and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia who has emerged as a respected leader in health-care advocacy. As a frontline clinician, she has dedicated her career to improving patient safety, transparency, accountability, and working conditions within Canada’s health-care system. Colleagues consistently describe her as a physician who combines clinical excellence with the ability to translate frontline challenges into meaningful policy reform and system-level change.

Dr. Stockton is widely recognized for her advocacy surrounding emergency department overcrowding, excessive wait times, workforce sustainability, and public transparency about health-system performance. Following a highly publicized dispute related to her efforts to inform patients about emergency department wait times, she transformed that experience into a broader campaign for health-system reform. She co-led the development of the proposed Appropriate Care for All Act, bringing together physicians, researchers, patient advocates, and health-care leaders to advance evidence-based solutions aimed at improving accountability and access to care. Her advocacy has included direct engagement with provincial political leaders, the British Columbia Ministry of Health, and organizations such as the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP), the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), Doctors of BC, and Emergency Care BC.

In addition to her work on health-system accountability, Dr. Stockton has been a prominent advocate for physician wellbeing and professional safety. She has collaborated with national organizations to address physician harassment, censorship, bullying, and administrative retaliation, contributing to the development of CAEP’s position statement on physician harassment and working with the Canadian Medical Association to strengthen national physician health surveys by including questions related to bullying and retaliation.

Her colleagues have praised her integrity, courage, and perseverance in advancing reforms that protect both patients and health-care professionals, making her a respected voice in emergency medicine advocacy across Canada.

News articles featuring Dr. Stockton:

• Preventable deaths, violent attacks: doctor alleges deteriorating conditions at Fraser Health hospitals

• ER doctor sues Fraser Health, claims bullying, retaliation

• Fraser Health reaches resolution with ER doctor who sued health authority

• ER doctors face threats, harassment for blowing the whistle on dangerous overcrowding