NL Health Services acknowledges that wait times for some patients may be long, but a number of major projects are underway that it hopes will address some of the lengthy wait times and crowding in capital city emergency rooms.

Calls and complaints about wait times in the ER are received almost daily in the VOCM Newsroom.  NL Health Services says its top priority is to provide safe and quality emergency care to patients arriving at ERs. Wait times vary, but patients who are assessed as non-urgent often have to wait 8 hours or more.

NL Health Services says the expansion of the Health Science emergency department is scheduled to be completed by 2027, while senior-friendly spaces are being created in new ERs.

Urgent care centres, which are expected to take some of the stress off Emergency Rooms, are expected to open later this year, while an ambulatory care centre in the old Costco building in St. John’s is also expected to open this year.

NLHS says recruitment efforts continue, and they are “steadily hiring” more registered nurses, including local graduates and internationally educated nurses.  NLHS also hired a new cardiologist who started working in the fall.