TORONTO — A report by Ontario's health quality adviser says most patients at Ontario hospital emergency wards are not having to wait as long to see a doctor.
Health Quality Ontario says there has been a 16 per cent drop in the average amount of time nine out of 10 patients waited in emergency to see a doctor — from 3.6 to 3 hours.
It also found a 10 per cent drop over the past seven years in the amount of time 90 per cent of patients spent in emergency
The report released Tuesday also said the data indicates that urban residents spent longer in emergency and waited longer to see a doctor than people living in rural areas.
The findings are based on data from the provincial health ministry and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences as well as accounts from patients and caregivers.
The report also said that many patients who needed to be admitted to hospital had to wait a long time in emergency for a bed.
"Patients may spend hours and sometimes even days lying on stretchers in emergency examination rooms or hallways," Health Quality Ontario president Dr. Joshua Tepper said in a release.
The shorter wait times for emergency doctors come despite an ever increasing number of patients and a higher number of more seriously ill people, the report said.
