Data released by Health Quality Ontario shows Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering Hospital ended the year 2022 recording the longest wait times in most categories in the region. Categories include length of stay, low urgency cases and emergency waiting times.
The average wait time at the Ajax picking site was 2.6 hours, where the Ontario average sits at two hours. Lakeridge Health Port Perry, however, beat the provincial average by sitting at 1.9 hours.
Two weeks ago, Danielle Tomasino spent seven and a half hours with her three-year-old, Pickering at Ajax Hospital in Lakeridge emergency department.
“I knew the wait time was long … but I hoped I would have gone earlier with a three-and-a-half-year-old,” Tomasino said.
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The frustration Tomasino feels is felt across the country, as emergency department wait times at hospitals exceed five, sometimes more than six hours in some hospitals. Tomasino said she arrived at the hospital at 8:30 p.m., but didn’t leave until 3:45 a.m.
Tomasino said, “At 12:30 they took us to another room and there was another family waiting, and then we sat there for another three hours, and then we left again.” “It’s like you get close and then you have to wait again.”
According to Tomasino, the triage nurse said it was not a particularly busy night, but there were patients with more serious injuries than her child. However, before coming to the ER, she said she called telehealth, which advised her it was an emergency.
According to Dr. Randy Wax, Chief of Staff, Lakeridge Health, a good step was to evaluate symptoms before coming to the ER.
“If you’re sick and need the ED we want you to come, and we’ll get you care fast,” Wax said.
“But if you don’t need it, don’t come in.”
Health-care providers are encouraging patients to use alternative resources to keep emergency department visits to a manageable level, such as urgent care clinics, cold and flu clinics and virtual resources.
Wax said that in addition to the pandemic and the spread of cold and flu viruses, there are several factors that have contributed to these long wait times. Wax said staff shortages, disrupted flows and access to alternative care are among them.
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“If you have patients in the emergency department who are waiting to go to inpatient beds in the hospital… it is important for them to flow… but we have people who are in a bed who need LTC to go home. There’s a need, so we’ll have to wait for them to go ahead until we can bring someone up,” Wax explained.
But Tommasino said that while the wait was long, it’s pretty clear that the staff are equally tired, and they’re not to blame.
“All the nurses, staff and doctors were amazing,” she said. “They need more staff and resources to support this volume.”
However, there is also a bright side, according to Wax. All four hospitals across the region are trying to tackle this long wait time problem, and they say they’ve made initial, but huge, improvements.
“Given our human resource constraints, the respiratory infections, and what we’re up against, I’m glad the wait times haven’t increased dramatically,” Wax said. “So I think some of the initiatives are making a difference.”
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