Ford government under fire over ER wait times

Published by: CityNews
Published on: January 11, 2024
By Richard Southern, Mike Visser

Calls are growing for the Ontario government to recall the legislature and deal with rising emergency room wait times.

“We’re extremely busy,” said Dr. Kashif Pirzada, an emergency room physician at one Greater Toronto Area hospital. “I walk in, there’s usually 10, 15 ambulances outside waiting to bring patients in.”

The situation is so bad that some hospitals like Markham Stouffville and Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay are advising patients to consider alternatives to the emergency room if their condition isn’t urgent.

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Saskatchewan

‘Every bed is full’: Saskatoon doctors at a loss in the face of jam-packed ERs

Published January 8, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: January 8, 2024
By Keenan Sorokan

Emergency room physicians in Saskatoon are becoming all too used to repeated apologies to patients for a system they say isn’t functioning as intended.

Dr. James Stempien says every shift presents a new set of challenges that rarely existed five to 10 years ago.

Rather than showing up to an emergency room, seeing a doctor and then being admitted to an appropriate ward of the hospital, more and more patients are being admitted and treated in the emergency room, linen rooms or hallways because there is nowhere else for them to go.

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Nova Scotia

Sydney doctor calls for higher public flu vaccination rates to ease ER waits

Published January 5, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: January 5, 2024
By Tom Ayers

Emergency room wait times are up at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney, N.S., mostly due to seasonal flu and respiratory illnesses and a resurgence of COVID, according to an emergency department doctor.

“The emergency department is crazy busy,” said Dr. Margaret Fraser, a family physician who does shifts at the regional ER. “We’re seeing very long wait times for patients — 12, 14, 18 hours — and high volumes of patients with respiratory illness, unfortunately.”

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Quebec

Pas de répit dans les urgences du Québec

Published December 30, 2023

Published by: Radio-Canada
Published on: December 30, 2023

Hospital emergency rooms in Quebec are overflowing again, after a calmer period at Christmas. The resurgence of respiratory viruses is sending many Quebecers to emergency rooms.

In healthcare facilities in the Montreal area, average occupancy was over 100% on Saturday night. Other regions were also particularly affected, such as Laval and Laurentides, where occupancy rates were close to 140%, according to Index Santé.

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Quebec

Débordements dans des salles d’urgence d’une majorité de régions du Québec

Published December 27, 2023

Published by: Le Devoir / The Canadian Press
Published on: December 27, 2023
By Jean-Philippe Denoncourt

The fall in occupancy rates in Quebec’s emergency rooms that began on 19 December ended on Tuesday.

The Index Santé website noted that this average rate had risen to 95% on 26 December, before jumping to 112% on Wednesday morning, shortly before 6 a.m., which was considered very high.

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Tag: emergency rooms