A report on hospital emergency room wait times in Ontario has shown an increase in the time it takes for somebody already in the ER to be admitted to hospital, once it has been determined that person should be admitted.
Despite the provincial numbers quoted in the report, wait times are generally quicker in Sudbury. Health Sciences North said that is because HSN has spent the past two-and-a-half years adjusting its bed capacity to cope with the demands of the pandemic. This comes at a time when HSN is coping with record-high hospitalizations.
The report put out by the Ontario Liberal Party argued that it is an indication that Ontario's health care is in crisis. The report was based on data provided by Health Quality Ontario (HQO).
“For months, Doug Ford and Sylvia Jones have repeatedly told us that our health-care system is not in crisis and that Ontarians are receiving the care they need in a timely manner,” said Don Valley East MPP Adil Shamji, a medical doctor and the Ontario Liberal health critic.
“Ford and Jones have made these claims in the face of mounting ER and ICU closures, outrageous ER wait times, and against the alarmed cries of frontline workers across the province,” Shamji added. “This report quantifiably demonstrates that our healthcare system is in crisis.”
According to the data from HQO, patients in Ontario spent an average of 21.3 hours in the emergency room waiting to be admitted, during September.
This is up from 20.7 hours in August and 20.8 hours in July. It also represents the highest average wait time for hospital admissions from Ontario ERs in the last year, according to HQO.
On Wednesday, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) issued a statement saying Ontario hospitals were being slammed by "the triple threat" of COVID-19 patients, influenza patients and those with RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus).
One of the speakers during the online news conference was Dr. Howard Ovens, described by the OMA as an emergency medicine expert and the chief medical strategy officer at Sinai Health System.
Ovens said his concern is that not enough people are going to their local emergency room. Ovens said too many people are putting off emergency visits, thinking they might not be that sick. He said when they do arrive at the ER in many cases they are sicker because they waited.
"My most important message is if you have what you believe is a serious or even potentially life-threatening emergency, especially if you're over 30 and you have chest pain. If you're experiencing shortness of breath, if you're feeling faint or are lightheaded and it doesn't pass quickly. If you're having severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, we're here for you. And don't delay once you feel that you are having an emergency, please come to see us," Ovens said.
Ovens also stated that emergency room staff are working as hard as they can to provide care at a time when a lot of people are sick and tempers are short.
"Just once I'd like to see a headline saying emergency staff showed up again today and continue to do their best under difficult circumstances. So remember, the people who are there in the emergency department are not the reason you're waiting so long. They're the reason you're getting care. Please be kind, please be courteous. We're doing the best we can," Ovens told the conference.
Figures provided by HQO show data on a hospital-by-hospital basis across Ontario. This also includes the most recent statistics (September 2022) for Health Sciences North in Sudbury. The stats also show a comparison with the provincial numbers. In Sudbury, the numbers show the various wait times at Health Sciences North were close to, or taking less time, than the provincial statistics.
On average, patients at the HSN Emergency Room waited 2.2 hours from the time they arrived in the ER to the time they were assessed by a physician. The Ontario average was two hours.
The stats also showed that it was 3.1 hours of average time in the Sudbury ER for "low urgency" patients who were not admitted to the hospital. This was exactly the same as the Ontario average.
Stats also revealed that it was 4.4 hours for the average length of stay for high-urgency patients, not admitted to the hospital. The Sudbury average was quicker than the Ontario average which was 4.6 hours.
In terms of patients who did require hospitalization, the average length of stay in the Sudbury ER before getting a hospital bed was 20.9 hours. This was a quicker turnaround than the Ontario average in September where the wait time was 21.3 hours.
HSN communications manager Jason Turnbull said the work to reduce wait times is a continuing effort.
"Generally speaking, wait times for patients in our emergency department are at or slightly better than provincial averages, which was not the case a few years ago," Turnbull said in an email.
"This improved performance would not have been possible without the hard work of our teams and close collaboration with community partners, especially when considering that we saw record admissions at HSN in September with 598 admitted patients in a hospital built for 412 patients," Turnbull said.
Part of the reason for the improvement he said was that HSN took steps during the pandemic to reduce the impact of higher patient demand.
"This includes the opening in 2020 of 60 beds at the Clarion Hotel, the opening in August 2020 of a 12-bed Overflow Unit in the South Tower, the opening in March 2021 of the 20-bed Addictions Medicine Unit and of the 20-bed Reactivation Care Unit both at Daffodil Lodge, and the opening in January 2022 of 16 hospital beds at Amberwood Suites," he said.
Turnbull said HSN valued the support from the province "for these interim capacity measures" while waiting for approval for HSN's plan for capital redevelopment.
Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com.
