Heading to London's ER? Prepare for a long wait
Hospital staff are reporting wait times as long as 18 hours
The London Health Sciences Centre is reporting exceptionally long wait times for adults looking for non-urgent treatment in the emergency room.
The region's largest hospital says people can expect to wait 10 hours or more at both the Victoria and University hospital campuses. The hospital reported wait times of more than 18 hours late Thursday afternoon.
"Certainly we're working away to decrease the time to be seen by a physician. Yesterday was a lengthy wait time and certainly we're working away at that today," said Dr. Christie MacDonald, the city-wide department head of emergency medicine for London.
There are several reasons for the long delays, said MacDonald. She said some patients take longer to be seen because of their condition. Hospital occupancy rates are high and that makes it harder to free up a bed for a patient who needs to be admitted. And the supply of beds is further complicated by the continuing problem of elderly patients waiting to find a placement in a long-term care facility, she added.
Hospital administrators are encouraging people heading to the emergency room to come prepared with a phone charger, a book, headphones, and a snack.
The Urgent Care Centre at St. Joseph's Health Care is also seeing extremely high patient volumes.
Unlike an emergency department, the Urgent Care Centre at St. Joseph's Hospital is not a 24/7 operation. The hours are: Monday to Friday, 8 am - 6 pm. Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 8 am - 4 pm. Hospital officials say they close early many days to ensure that patients already registered and waiting are tended to.
A notice is posted outside the centre and on the hospital's website when the Urgent Care Centre must close early.