Average ER wait times in Ontario reaches new high, data shows
Average wait times for patients being admitted to an Ontario hospital from an emergency room appear to be steadily increasing, with a new record reached in October.
New data released by Health Quality Ontario (HQO) on Thursday shows patients spent an average of 22.9 hours in an emergency room that month waiting to be admitted.
This is up from 21.3 hours in September and 20.7 hours in August. It also represents the highest average wait time for hospital admissions from Ontario ERs in the last year.
According to the HQO, just 21 per cent of patients were admitted from the ER within the provincial target of eight hours.
For patients not being admitted to hospital, wait times were significantly more manageable. On average, about 88 per cent of high-urgency patients left the emergency room within eight hours and 72 per cent of low-urgency patients finished their visit within the target time of four hours.
On average, the HQO says patients waited about 2.2 hours in an emergency room for their first assessment by a doctor.
The data comes weeks after five of Ontario’s largest health care unions issued an appeal to the Doug Ford government, saying the government’s current plan to address the overburdened health-care system is "failing miserably."
Health Quality Ontario data shows the average ER wait times for patients being admitted in the last year.
The Progressive Conservative government released their plan to stabilize the health-care system in August. Their strategy includes an investment in private clinic surgeries, a pledge to add up to 6,000 new health-care workers and Bill 7—legislation that allows hospitals to transfer patients waiting for a long-term care home spot to a home not of their choosing or serve them a daily $400 fee.
The goal, the government said, is to free up beds in acute care for those who needed it.
However, months after the plan was announced, patients and front-line workers are still reporting long wait times and a lack of beds. Many hospitals have also said they are operating over capacity in part due to the triple threat of influenza, COVID-19 and RSV this fall.
Last month, Liberal MPP Dr. Adil Shamji told reporters that September 2022 was the worst on record for hospital wait times, “extending all the way back to 2008.”
“No matter how you look at this data, whether it month over month, or a year over a year, health-care performance is continuing its dramatic nosedive and unfortunately is now in freefall,” he said at the time.
An Ontario Health report showed that in September, an average of about 949 patients were waiting for a hospital bed in an emergency room at 8 a.m. daily.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones has previously said that long wait times in hospital emergency rooms “are not new issues and not new problems.” The PCs have repeatedly said the issues with the province’s health care stem from before they were elected in 2018 and that their government is “not okay with the status quo.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the minister told CTV News Toronto they are taking a "team Ontario approach" to the problem, including increasing hospital capacity by adding 3,500 new hospital beds.
“We know emergency department volumes have been increasing year over year and we are not okay with the status quo," they wrote.
"We have also worked with pediatric hospitals to ramp up their capacity where possible"
The Ontario NDP has expressed concern for the health-care system heading into the winter months.
"They expect more people to get sick, more demands on their services, more children to get sick, more demands on pediatric care," NDP MPP and Health Critic France Gélinas said. "It is taking a toll on all of us."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Jasper updates: Wildfire reaches southern outskirts of townsite
One of two wildfires threatening the townsite in Jasper National Park has reached the southern outskirts of the Alberta Rockies community.
Alberta calls in army to assist with wildfire situation
Alberta has called in the Canadian Armed Forces to help assist with the worsening wildfire situation in the province.
Biden says he ended re-election bid to unite party
Insisting that 'the defence of democracy is more important than any title,' U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday explained in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for re-election and to throw his support behind Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
2 Canadians being 'sent home immediately,' removed from Olympic team after drone incident
An analyst and an assistant coach with Canada Soccer are being removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and 'sent home immediately,' according to the Canadian Olympic Committee.
An unwelcome attendee has joined the Paris Olympic Games: COVID-19
After a handful of Australian water polo players tested positive for COVID-19 this week, questions have emerged around how the spread of the disease will be mitigated at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
Vacations, meals, booze: Contractor used $100K of charity's money for personal expenses, B.C. court finds
A B.C. man who was hired to help a non-profit build a food hub but instead spent the money on personal expenses – including travel, restaurants, booze and cannabis – has been ordered to pay more than $120,000 in damages.
Male, female killed, 2 others injured in 'gun battle' outside Toronto plaza: police
Two people are dead and two others suffered serious injuries following a shooting that police have described as a 'gun battle' outside a plaza in Scarborough, Ont. early Wednesday morning.
Wildfire north of Calgary prompts evacuation alert, highway closures
A wildfire is prompting evacuations and highway closures north of Calgary.