A new study revealed that wait times in Manitoba have increased since last year.
According to the director of research at the MEI, an independent public policy think tank, patients visiting the emergency rooms across Manitoba spent six minutes longer there than the previous year.
"These long wait times are not just numbers — they represent real Canadians who face delays in receiving critical care that cause needless pain or distress," said Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI and a contributor to the report. "In all the provinces, wait times are worse today than they were five years ago, a clear sign that our healthcare systems are struggling to provide their patients with timely access to care."
In Manitoba, the median patient stay, from arrival to discharge or admission to another department, was four hours, an increase of 48 minutes over the past five years.
Our province wasn't he only place to see an increase; across Canada, the median length of stay ranged from two hours and 45 minutes in Newfoundland and Labrador to five hours and 23 minutes in Quebec.
"It’s also important to note that this experience varies depending on where you are in the province, as the length of stay can differ greatly between regions."
In Manitoba, the longest median emergency room stays were in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority facilities at seven hours and 24 minutes, Shared Health's facilities at four hours and 48 minutes and the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority's facilities at three hours and six minutes.
"Having to spend long hours waiting in an emergency room may be the norm in Manitoba, but in other developed countries, it isn’t," said Wittevrongel. "It’s clear that solving the issue of long wait times requires looking at best practices from abroad, such as Europe’s mixed systems, to finally give patients the timely access they deserve."
St. Boniface General Hospital took the top spot for the longest visit, with a median length of 10 hours and 30 minutes last year, followed by Grace Hospital at 10 hours and six minutes and Health Sciences Centre at seven hours and 48 minutes.