ER wait times down across Outaouais, but still lag
Patients typically spend nearly 17 hours waiting for a bed, more than 3 hours longer than provincial average
Wait times at Outaouais emergency rooms are slowly improving but still lag behind other Quebec hospitals, new numbers reveal.
According to data obtained by Radio-Canada from Quebec's health ministry, patients who required stretchers at Outaouais emergency rooms between April and October 2017 spent an average of 16.8 hours per visit waiting to be admitted
That average response time represents an eight per cent improvement over local wait times for the same period in 2016, but it's still more than three hours behind the Quebec average of 13.6 hours.
Regional wait times vary
Patients on stretchers at the Hull Hospital and the Gatineau Hospital experienced some of the longest wait times in the region, having to wait an average of 17.9 and 17.8 hours, respectively.
Average wait times were significantly shorter at the Maniwaki Hospital (11 hours) and the Pontiac Hospital (9.8 hours) in Shawville, Que.
Quebec's health ministry has been making a bid to reduce overcrowding in the province's emergency rooms, recently proposing a 24-hour cap on stretcher waits before patients are admitted, released or transferred to another health facility.
The province's medical community has concluded the ideal average wait time shouldn't exceed 12 hours, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette said in August.