Average ER wait times continue to increase in Quebec

Hospital ER wait times in Quebec have been steadily increasing over the past few years.

The median length of stay for a patient in an ER in Quebec was 5 hours and 11 minutes last year, according to a Montreal Economic Institute study published Thursday morning.

“If you need emergency medical care in Quebec, you’d better learn to be patient,” says Emmanuelle B. Faubert, an economist at the MEI and author of the study.

“The fact that an ER visit now takes over five hours shows that our system no longer works.”

The longest emergency room visits in Quebec are in the Laurentians (7 hours and 16 minutes), the Lanaudière region (6 hours and 49 minutes), and Laval (6 hours and 45 minutes).

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The ER at the Hôpital Anna-Laberge was found to be the worst, with a median length of stay of 10 hours and 27 minutes.

“The rise in median and average length of stay means a typical ER visit is a bit longer, and you’re more likely to be faced with exceptionally long wait times,” Faubert explains.

With the exception of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the median length of stay of an emergency room visit has been increasing for four years, going from 4 hours and 31 minutes in 2018 to 5 hours and 11 minutes last year.

The average length of stay has also increased by 1 hour and 39 minutes over the same period, to its current length of 9 hours and 1 minute.

Increased wait times in Quebec ERs are just another sign of overburdened healthcare systems across the country.

With the pandemic having only accelerated medical burnout and staffing shortages, many hospital emergency rooms across the province have been operating at or above capacity.