Longer than normal emergency wait times causing stress at CMH

Cambridge Memorial Hospital says the province needs to do more to fix the long wait times it and many hospitals across Ontario are still experiencing in their emergency departments, long after the COVID surge.

“This morning we had seven patients waiting for a bed. This is very high for us,” said hospital spokesperson Stephan Beckhoff, adding CMH currently has 248 staff vacancies and 17 staff off due to COVID.

Between being short staffed and seeing high volumes of patients, the hospital communications team is reporting that they have been seeing higher then normal wait times in their emergency department since December, when the Omicron wave started. 

A threat of death to a patient or losing a limb will be seen right away in the ED, but other patients have to wait several hours before being triaged or seeing a doctor.

After suffering a stroke last year, a local resident needed treatment earlier this week after experiencing stroke-like symptoms.

He went to CMH at around 5 p.m. and proceeded to wait another six hours before finally his wife told him to come home to sleep. He left without getting any treatment. 

“He's been having a hard time functioning at work so he’s been off for the last couple days. Last Night I told him to go to the hospital so he finally did,” said the man's wife, who asked to remain anonymous so that it doesn't affect his work.

“There were people in the waiting room who had been there since 2 p.m. and hadn’t been seen. He just got so frustrated from all the stories of the people in the waiting room there that he left without being seen.

“Now he’s totally put off going back to the hospital.”

Cambridge resident Charissa Cadavida Magcawas shared a similar story. She said about a month ago she brought her baby boy to CMH after the baby had a fever and cold for three days.

They arrived at 4 p.m. and waited til close to midnight without being seen by a doctor.

“We were there eight hours and they still didn't check my baby,” said Magcawas, who went home to tend to the needs of her other child without getting the help she needed.

“It's really frustrating. I'm new to Cambridge and I have two kids, I never experienced this when I was in Toronto.”

Magcawas said she had been to CMH in the past for her child and experienced wait times closer to 4 hours.

“Wait times have been increasing steadily since mid 2021,” confirmed CMH communications team.

“It got very bad at the end of last December as the Omicron wave started.”

“That wave really affected our staffing levels, which combined with the vacancies that needed to be filled, made us short staffed on most days and is continuing through the spring.”

The hospital's medicine beds are reported at 99 per cent capacity as of today.

“When there is no availability of an inpatient bed, a patient that needs to be admitted to hospital stays in the emergency department,” Beckhoff said. 

“This in turn reduces the space clinicians can see ED patients in, more people in the waiting rooms, and it takes nurses away from seeing ED patients as they are now caring for the admitted patient waiting for a bed.”

There are many contributing factors as to why CMH is experiencing longer wait times in it's emergency department, staffing shortages playing the biggest part, he added.

“Short staffing in any part of the hospital can affect ED wait times. If you don’t have enough people taking x-rays, analyzing blood samples, bringing patients to get tests, restocking clinics, that impacts the wait in ED.”