A new national report has found that British Columbians are waiting longer to receive care in emergency rooms than ever before. The median length of stay in a B.C. emergency room was four hours and 13 minutes in 2024, up from three hours in 2019.
Key Findings
- Median Wait Time: The median wait time indicates that half of patients wait longer than this amount, while the other half waits less.
- Comparative Data:
- Quebec had the longest waiting times, with a median wait nearly five-and-a-half hours longer than the average stays in other provinces.
- Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia were not included in the report due to a lack of submitted data.
Hospitals with Notable Wait Times
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Shortest Wait Times:
- Providence Health’s Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver had the shortest ER waiting time, with stays just under three hours longer than average.
- Fraser Health’s Fraser Canyon Hospital in Hope and Vancouver Coastal’s UBC Health Sciences Centre followed closely behind with similar wait times.
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Longest Wait Times:
- The Abbotsford Regional Hospital & Cancer Centre reported a median wait time of six hours and 36 minutes, making it one of the worst performers overall.
- Royal Jubilee Hospital (Island Health, Victoria) and Vancouver General University of British Columbia (VGH) Emergency Department also reported long waiting times.
Patient Experiences
A patient visiting Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody shared a photo of a handwritten sign indicating a wait of twelve hours and 25 minutes before seeing a doctor. However, hospital officials later confirmed they did not create or display such signs, despite acknowledging higher-than-normal patient volumes and unexpected staffing challenges during that period.
Eagle Ridge Hospital consistently reported some of the longest ER waiting times among Metro Vancouver hospitals, ranking twentieth out of thirty-nine total facilities surveyed in the study published late last year.
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