Ottawa hospital ER wait times exceed provincial average

CHEO, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, located on Smyth Road in Ottawa is seen in this undated file photo.

Three Ottawa hospitals have some of the longest wait times in Ontario for a first assessment by a doctor in a hospital emergency room, and all five ERs in Ottawa exceed the provincial wait time average.

Statistics from Health Quality Ontario show the average wait time for a first assessment by a doctor in the emergency room was two hours in May.

CHEO and the Queensway-Carleton Hospital tied for the third longest wait time in Ontario to see a doctor in May, at 3.6 hours. The wait time for a first assessment at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital increased from 3.4 hours in April. The average wait time was 3.3 hours at CHEO.

The wait time for a first assessment by a doctor in the ER at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus was 3.5 hours in May, up from 3.3 hours in April and 2.9 hours in March.

Patients waited an average of 2.6 hours for a first assessment in the ER at the Montfort Hospital in May, while the average wait to see a doctor was 2.1 hours at the Ottawa Hospital General Campus.

The Windsor Regional Hospital – Metropolitan Campus had the longest wait for a first assessment in the ER in Ontario in May, at four hours.

Patients waited an average of 3.5 hours for a first assessment by a doctor at the Winchester District Memorial Hospital emergency department.

Time in the hospital

All Ottawa hospitals continue to exceed the provincial target for the average length of stay in the ER for low-urgent patients not admitted to hospital. The average stay in the ER across Ontario was 3.2 hours in May, while the target time is four hours.

In Ottawa, the average length of stay in the ER for low-urgent patients not admitted to hospital ranged from 6.1 hours at the Montfort Hospital, 5.4 hours at CHEO, 5.4 hours at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital, 5.1 hours at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus and 4.8 hours at the General Campus.

The Kingston Health Sciences Centre’s Kingston General had the longest length of time in the ER for low-urgent patients not admitted to hospital, with patients spending an average of 6.4 hours in the ER.