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
Couple randomly attacked, 1 stabbed, by group of teens in Toronto, police say
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
Ron Ellis, who played over 1,000 games with Maple Leafs, dead at 79
Ron Ellis, who played over 1,000 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was a member of Canada's team at the 1972 Summit Series, has died at age 79.
Fort Nelson, B.C., wildfire doubles in size as 3,000-plus ordered to evacuate
The wildfire that sparked Friday and caused evacuation orders for more than 3,000 people in Fort Nelson, B.C., and the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, has grown to nearly 1,700 hectares in size, according to a Saturday morning update from the BC Wildfire Service.
Dutch contestant kicked out of Eurovision hours before tension-plagued song contest final
Hours before the final, Dutch contestant Joost Klein was dramatically booted out by organizers over a backstage incident. He had failed to perform at two dress rehearsals on Friday, and contest organizer the European Broadcasting Union said it was investigating an "incident."
IN PHOTOS Northern lights dance across the night sky in southern Ont.
From London, to Mildmay, Collingwood and St. Thomas, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
Haitians demand the resignation and arrest of the country's police chief after a new gang attack
A growing number of civilians and police officers are demanding the dismissal and arrest of Haiti's police chief as heavily armed gangs launched a new attack in the capital of Port-au-Prince, seizing control of yet another police station early Saturday.
opinion How to use your credit card as a powerful wealth-building tool
Irresponsibly using a credit card can land you in financial trouble, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says when used properly, it can be a powerful wealth-building tool that can help grow your credit profile and create new opportunities.
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
'We have no judge for you': Man's assault charges dropped weeks before trial due to lack of judges in Toronto
A man who was accused of sexually and physically assaulting a woman had his charges dropped in April, just weeks before he was set to stand trial in Toronto, due to a lack of judges in the region.