Sharp spike in emergency room wait times putting Ontario patients at risk: study

Majority of Ontario hospitals are also forecasting budget deficits, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.

The Ford government says it is addressing capacity pressures inside hospitals, even as a new report finds a dramatic increase in emergency department wait times is putting patients at risk.

The new research from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) compared the situation inside hospital ERs in 2020/21 to 2024/25.

The study compared the 90th percentile wait times — the time at which 90 per cent of patients waited less, and 90 per cent waited longer. It found a 90th percentile wait time of 4.5 hours for an initial physician assessment; that’s up from 2.7 hours, a 67 per cent increase in five years, the CCPA found.

It found a 90th percentile wait of 44 hours to be admitted to an inpatient bed, up from 29 hours, a 52 per cent increase in five years, according to the report.

“The longer patients languish in the emergency department waiting to be admitted, the risks of deteriorating health status and poorer outcomes increase,” said Andrew Longhurst, a senior researcher at the CCPA.

When asked if it’s acceptable that ER wait times are increasing, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said low-acuity visits are falling, suggesting the government’s efforts to divert non-urgent cases to community settings like primary care and pharmacies is having an impact.

“Then individuals make decisions not to go to emergency departments because they have those other opportunities,” she said.

On Monday, the government announced it is once again expanding pharmacist powers, adding five common ailments to the 19 they are already allowed to treat.

Jones said 2.4 million people have accessed the service since they launched it two years ago.

“It really is that convenience of patients knowing that they don’t only and always have to go to the emergency department, they can go to their primary care providers, in some cases, they can go to their local community pharmacies.”

But critics believe that is an admission that hospitals can’t keep up.

“Should we be looking at other health care professionals and their scope of practice? Absolutely. But at the end of the day it’s not gonna solve the problem we have,” said NDP Leader Marit Stiles. “The minister of health doesn’t want to address that, wants to pretend everything is A-OK, and the reality is people in Ontario are sicker, they are waiting longer to get the health care they need, they are being treated in hospital hallways and storage closets,” she said.

Majority of Ontario hospitals in the red

The CCPA also noted that more than 70 per cent of Ontario hospitals are forecasting budget deficits to end the 2025-26 fiscal year, up from 55 per cent in 2024-25, with smaller and rural hospitals hit the hardest, raising concerns about their ongoing financial sustainability.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said when the majority of Ontario hospitals are “taking out a line of credit just to meet payroll, you have a major problem the government is failing to address.”

Jones said hospitals are currently on a three-year path to balance.

“Hospitals are being asked … what is your plan for your individual hospital corporation to make sure the money that is being funnelled through … is actually going to be spent on front-line patient care?” she said.

“I haven’t seen any evidence to indicate that the money isn’t flowing to where it’s needed,” Longhurst said. “The issue is that there is just not enough funding all around, and it’s uneven in terms of the size of hospital and their capacity to sustain multiple years of deficit.”

The government invested an additional $1.1 billion in hospital funding in this year’s budget, up four per cent from last year. The Ontario Hospital Association has said that still leaves a $1-billion gap, forcing them to make cuts that could affect front-line patient care.

“The health minister basically chided the hospital management for not being appreciative of the funding cuts they’re receiving from this government,” said Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.

He was referring to comments Jones made in a closed-door leadership conference earlier this month, when she reportedly expressed frustration about the OHA’s public response to the province’s hospital funding increase, which was one paragraph in a news release, compared to a page-and-a-half statement they wrote thanking the federal government for investments.

She later explained to The Trillium that she was “simply highlighting what we already have done, and we need a partner in our hospital systems…. When we work together, we come forward with proactive solutions.”

The CCPA is recommending the province “immediately increase funding to improve hospital finances and capacity” and “develop a provincial health care workforce strategy and capital plan” to address staffing shortages and improve the workplace environment.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected. The statistics on hospital wait times are for the 90th percentile, not “average” wait times.