Region sees little change as average Ontario hospital wait times continue to climb

If you've been to the hospital ER lately, you may have felt like someone was adding sand to the hourglass while you waited.

The average wait to admission through an Ontario Emergency Department has climbed to levels not seen in the last year.

There are two key numbers to keep track of when it comes to emergency room wait times — time to admission is one, but also time to first assessment.

In Ontario, the average wait is now just over two-hours to first be seen by a doctor and nearly 21-hours to admission.

Here in Waterloo Region, the good news is there has not been a major increase in wait times though, unfortunately, those numbers haven't gone down much either.

The longest local wait times are reported at Cambridge Memorial Hospital where the average wait to first assessment is a little under three-hours while patients will wait an average of 22-hours before being admitted.

The numbers are a little better at St. Mary's General Hospital where the wait to first see a doctor is just over two-hours while the average wait to admission hits the provincial average of 21-hours.

The shortest waits are at Grand River Hospital. The wait there to first see a doctor is about a half-hour longer than at St. Mary's General though the average time to admission is a little under 12-hours.