Ottawa hospitals exceed provincial average for ER wait times, report shows

A sign directing visitors to the emergency department at CHEO in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

Four out of five hospital emergency rooms in Ottawa exceeded the provincial average for wait times to see a doctor in the fall. For the second straight month, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) had the longest wait time to see a doctor in the ER.

New statistics from Health Quality Ontario show the average wait time for a first assessment by a doctor in the emergency room at CHEO was 4.6 hours in November, up from 4.3 hours in October and 4.1 hours in September.

CHEO says if your child needs urgent medical attention, you should bring them to the hospital.

“The sickest patients are always treated first and you may not be seen in the order of arrival,” says a note on the CHEO website. “When the emergency department is busy, patients with less urgent needs may have much longer wait times.”

The provincial average for a first assessment in the ER was 2.1 hours in November.

The Ottawa Hospital General Campus reported an average wait of 2 hours to see a doctor in November, down from 3.5 hours in October.

The average wait time for a first assessment by a doctor in the ER was 3.6 hours at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (3.5 hours in October), 3.5 hours at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital (3.9 hours in October) and 2.4 hours at the Montfort Hospital (2.5 hours in October)

The Winchester District Memorial Hospital had the second longest wait time to see a doctor in the ER, at 4.3 hours in November.

Low urgent ER patients not admitted to hospital

Statistics from Health Quality Ontario show all Ottawa hospitals exceeded the provincial average for the time low-urgent patients spent in the ER without being admitted to hospital.

The provincial average was 3.4 hours in November.

Low-urgent patients spent an average 6.6 hours in the ER at CHEO in November, according to the statistics. The Ottawa Hospital General Campus reported, on average, low-urgent patients not admitted to hospital spent 6.6 hours in the ER.

Low urgency patients spent an average of 5.2 hours in the ER at the Civic Campus. The Montfort Hospital reported low-urgency patients spent 5.1 hours in the ER, and the Queensway-Carleton Hospital reported the patients spent an average of 4.9 hours in the ER without being admitted to hospital.

Less than 50 per cent of low-urgency patients finished their emergency visit within the target time of four hours at all Ottawa hospital ERs in November.

According to the Ontario government website, examples of low-urgent conditions include sore throat, vomiting and headache. High-urgency conditions include heart attack and severe allergic reactions.