Brampton and Mississauga residents experience long wait times for surgeries, diagnostics and emergency room visits as compared to others in the province.

A newly launched website by Queen’s Park — through the click of few buttons — will offer residents, among other things; information on how long they can expect to wait before their first appointment with a specialist/surgeon, for a procedure, CT/MRI scans and in emergency rooms.

According to the new portal, the waiting period for a knee replacement surgery at William Osler Health System's (Osler) Brampton Civic Hospital (BCH) is currently 185 days, well above the province’s average of 120 days.

Patients wanting to undergo the same orthopedic procedure at Trillium Health Partners’ (THP) Credit Valley (CVH) and Mississauga Hospital sites have waiting period of 102 days. For cataract surgery, there is a waiting period of 131 days (province's average is 94).

In the case of CT scans, it will take Mississauga residents on average, 69 days to get the diagnostic service, while In Brampton it’s 28 days, as per data shown from Osler’s three sites; BCH, Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness and Etobicoke General.

At the time of the website's launch, Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario’s minister of health and long-term care, and Hillary Hartley, chief digital officer, introduced several other digital tools, including an eReferral system available at some Local Health Integration Networks and a user-focused, mobile-friendly site offering information about health services such as renewing health cards, finding health services in your community and accessing dental care for children.

The eReferral system is not available for Brampton and Mississauga residents.