New CIHI data reveals Manitoba emergency department wait times among longest in Canada – Winnipeg

New figures show Manitoba ranks among the top in the country for wait times for emergency room care.

Data released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that nine out of 10 Manitobans who go to the emergency room and are released spend between 13 and 19 hours waiting before they can go home. That’s the longest wait in the country.

The total is also up from five years ago, when patients spent seven to 11 hours waiting to go home.

People admitted to hospital from the emergency room spend nearly 59 hours waiting for a bed, the third-longest wait time in the country, up from 37 hours five years ago.

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Keir Johnson of Doctors Manitoba says the solution to this problem actually lies outside the emergency room.

“We need more hospital beds so that people who are stuck in the emergency room can take up space that is not available to people in the waiting room. Let’s put them in an inpatient bed,” Johnson said.

“We need to increase the number of family doctors so that many of these problems can be treated earlier, when they are less complicated and never require a trip to the emergency room.”

Global News has reached out to the provincial government but has not yet received a response.

Since its election almost a year ago, the NDP has conducted several listening tours in different health establishments in the province.

But Manitoba Nurses Union President Darlene Jackson says they have no idea yet what the outcome will be.

“We know that listening tours are being held and that staff are participating in them,” Jackson said. “However, I have no idea, we have not been privy to what has come out of those listening tours or whether there has been any initiative or solution proposed by this government.”

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