NL Health Services is working to improve the flow of patients through St. John’s ERs, but wait times are long, with many patients leaving before being seen by a doctor.
The number of patients who left ERs in St. John’s without being seen rose from 7.5 per cent in 2019-2020 to 12.5 per cent in 2023-2024.
The health authority acknowledges those figures reflect challenges faced by ER, but also underscores the importance of action being taken to improve access to care and reducing wait times.
According to NL Health Services, average wait times at the Health Sciences Centre from October 20th to the 26th show that patients triaged as Urgent waited an average of 6.5 hours to be seen, while Emergent cases had an average wait of 4.2 hours. Less Urgent cases also had an average wait of just over 6 hours, while Non Urgent patients waited an average of 8.4 hours.
The Health Authority says wait times are dependent on volume, human resource challenges and the number of primary care and family physicians available in the community as well as the number of patients in acute care and long-term care facilities which affects wait times for inpatient beds.
When beds in the ER are filled by patients who have been admitted to hospital but are waiting for space in the facilities, hallways serve as overflow.
NL Health Services is currently working on expanding the Health Sciences emergency department with a number of urgent care centres set to open next year. Meanwhile an ambulatory care centre is being developed in the former Costco location in the capital city’s east end which is set to open early in the new year. Those initiatives it is hoped will help to alleviate some of the pressures on the Health Sciences ER.
