TORONTO – Many will remember the summer wave of temporary closures of emergency rooms: well, in the smallest and most rural communities of Ontario, the emergency is never over. And while understaffing led hospitals to close their emergency departments for hours or days during the summer of 2022, the closures didn’t really stop at the end of the summer season. (more…)
TORONTO – Yet another negative record for Ontario hospitals: the average waiting times for patients arriving in the emergency room and needing to be hospitalized reached 21.3 hours in September according to data collected by Health Quality Ontario (HQO ): a considerable increase compared to the already very long average waiting times recorded in August (20.7 hours) and July (20.8 hours). (more…)
TORONTO – Hospitals are close to collapse. And for those who have the misfortune of needing them, this translates into endless waits to be visited, treated or hospitalized. (more…)
TORONTO – History repeats itself. As has been the case for a few weeks, also this weekend, the emergency rooms of numerous hospitals in Ontario remained closed. It happened to the Durham site of the South Bruce Grey Health Centre (SBGHC), georgian Bay General Hospital and Ottawa’s Monfort Hospital that was closed at night to cope with an “unprecedented shortage” of nurses. And last week it was the turn of Perth, Listowel, Seaforth and Bowmanville, where Lakeridge Health temporarily closed its intensive care unit and relocated patients to the Ajax-Pickering and Oshawa campuses.
TORONTO – “Crisis is the right word.” Joining the chorus of doctors and nurses sounding the alarm is Ontario Health Vice President Chris Simpson. The growing pressure on the province’s health system is not the result of fantasy but a sad reality even if the Ford government continues to deny the evidence minimizing the seriousness of the situation.