New statistics from Health Quality Ontario show that patients waited an average of 1.9 hours to see a doctor in an Ontario emergency room in April, the third consecutive month with an increase in waiting time. In Ottawa, the average waiting time to see a doctor for an initial evaluation in the emergency room was between 1.8 and 3.4 hours in April. Three Ottawa hospitals ranked in the top 12 for the longest waiting times in Ontario. At Montfort Hospital, patients waited an average of 1.8 hours to see a doctor in the emergency room in April. The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus reported an average waiting time of 2.5 hours, while patients waited 3.4 hours at the Ottawa Hospital General Campus. The average waiting time was 2.8 hours at Queensway Carleton Hospital. Patients in the emergency room waited an average of 3.4 hours to be evaluated by a physician at CHEO. The average length of stay in the emergency department for “low-income patients” who do not require hospitalization ranged from 3.5 hours at Montfort Hospital to 5.4 hours at CHEO. The average length of stay in the ER for “low-income patients” at Ottawa Hospital was 4.4 hours on the Civic Campus and 5 hours on the General Campus. Dr James Worrall, an emergency physician at Ottawa Hospital, told Newstalk 580 CFRA “CFRA Live with Andrew Pinsent” that health professionals had been burned after the COVID-19 pandemic. “Only in our department, for example, have we seen a large turnover of our nursing staff. Many people who have been with us for a long time have left. They have reached the end of their rope,” he said. “We have a lot of wonderful, new, younger nurses, we were able to hire them, but we still have a shortage of staff. It will take some time to reach a new balance, but there is no way to avoid it.” Worrall also said the types of illnesses that doctors see in the emergency department have become more complex as the population ages. “As people get older, they develop more diseases. Fortunately, we have better treatments now and people can live with chronic diseases. But when you live with chronic diseases, you develop complications and problems. Often, they are unplanned, so you come to the emergency department. “This means that the complexity of the problems we have seen in the emergency department has never been greater.” Ottawa Hospital Nurse Christie Cowan says burnout is becoming a serious problem. “Healthcare in Ontario bent at the knee; COVID and Bill 124 came with a hammer and just took their feet just below us,” Cowan told CTV News Ottawa. Bill 124 ceilings raises salaries for nurses and other civil servants to one percent for three years. Some nurses left the profession because of the salary cap, saying it made them feel undervalued. Patients with more complex needs need more time to heal, which means the number of patients a doctor in the emergency department can see in an hour is declining, Worrall said. Hospitals in Ottawa have warned patients to wait longer than usual in the emergency room due to patient size. Last weekend, CHEO said it was experiencing a “spring weekend like no other” with a flooded emergency room and lack of beds. At one point, 16 patients waited in the emergency room for up to 48 hours for a hospital bed. “As of Friday, we have more young people than normal for this time of year coming to us with viruses, bruises and injuries that are more serious than normal. Broken bones, head injuries, etc .: diseases that require admissions at the hospital.” said CHEO in a statement on Twitter. “But we do not have free beds.” CHEO said its emergency department had experienced the busiest May ever and was ready to set a record for patients in June. Hawkesbury and District General Hospital had the second longest waiting time to see an emergency doctor in Ontario, at 3.5 hours. The Windsor Regional Hospital – Metropolitan Campus had the longest wait to see a doctor for an initial evaluation in April, at 5 p.m. With files from Jeremie Charron of CTV News Ottawa
