{"id":20427,"date":"2022-10-16T14:48:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-16T18:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=20427"},"modified":"2022-12-01T14:54:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T19:54:25","slug":"its-looney-wait-time-trackers-not-the-solution-to-overcrowded-emergency-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/its-looney-wait-time-trackers-not-the-solution-to-overcrowded-emergency-rooms\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s looney’: Wait time trackers not the solution to overcrowded emergency rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

(October 15, 2022)<\/p>\n

By: Tina Yazdani and John Marchesan, City News<\/p>\n

Lakeridge Health in Durham region has launched a wait time tracker for its emergency room, the latest tool to try and address spiking delays patients are facing at Ontario hospitals.<\/p>\n

While the tracker gives the public an estimate of\u00a0\u201d rel=\u201dnoopener\u201d target=\u201d_blank\u201d>how long the wait will be at the four hospitals<\/a><\/span>\u00a0across the region, hospital officials themselves admit it doesn\u2019t address the underlying issues that are creating those long wait times.<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cWe have a staffing crisis, the likes of which we have never seen, no exaggeration,\u201d said Natalie Mehra, the Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The wait times are refreshed every 30 minutes and its not intended for people with life-threatening emergencies, who will be seen immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you imagine a flight that says it\u2019s going to take off at some point rather than giving you an actual departure time,\u201d explains Ilan Lenga, Chief Information Officer at Lakeridge Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actual wait times in ED are, of course, not solved by having a tracker. This is more about transparency to our public.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0leaked report on hospital emergency room statistics<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from Ontario Health revealed that August hospital wait times were the worst they\u2019ve ever been compared to any other August, and that wait times rose even as the number of patients fell.<\/p>\n

The data showed for nine out of 10 patients, the wait time for an initial assessment by a doctor in emergency is up 50 per cent from pre-pandemic to 4.9 hours while the length of stay in emergency rooms for patients being admitted to hospital but waiting for beds was up 44 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a rolling disaster and it just has to end,\u201d says Mehra. \u201cWe need to restore hospital capacity and deal with the staffing crisis. Apps and all of that stuff is just kind of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to CityNews the Ministry of Health says in part, \u201cOnce fully implemented, the next phase of the Plan to Stay Open will add up to 6,000 more health care workers to Ontario\u2019s health workforce, and free up over 2,500 hospital beds so that care is there for those who need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But advocates say 6,000 more workers is not nearly enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a ludicrous statement. It just underlines how little they\u2019re doing,\u201d says Mehra. \u201cWe\u2019re about 50,000 staff short. That\u2019s nurses, health professionals, and PSWs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is negligent on the part of the Ford government to do so little in the face of this crisis.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One solution she suggests is to launch a recruitment strategy with financial incentives to bring back retired staff for four to five years in order to train new staff to replace them.<\/p>\n

Another is to repeal Bill 124 which caps wage increases for public sector workers at one per cent annually.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir workloads are beyond anything anyone has ever seen, and we have wage restraint legislation? And refuse to take it out even as there\u2019s a mass exodus of those workers? It\u2019s looney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other hospitals have implemented a similar wait time clock including\u00a0Markham Stouffville Hospital<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and the\u00a0William Osler Health Network<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>in Peel, which became the latest to warn of long wait times this weekend.<\/p>\n

Click here for original article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(October 15, 2022) By: Tina Yazdani and John Marchesan, City News Lakeridge Health in Durham region has launched a wait time tracker for its emergency room, the latest tool to try and address spiking delays patients are facing at Ontario hospitals. While the tracker gives the public an estimate of\u00a0\u201d rel=\u201dnoopener\u201d target=\u201d_blank\u201d>how long the wait […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\n'It's looney': Wait time trackers not the solution to overcrowded emergency rooms - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(October 15, 2022) By: Tina Yazdani and John Marchesan, City News Lakeridge Health in Durham region has launched a wait time tracker for its emergency\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/its-looney-wait-time-trackers-not-the-solution-to-overcrowded-emergency-rooms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'It's looney': Wait time trackers not the solution to overcrowded emergency rooms - 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