Emergency department wait times hit record levels this summer, according to the umbrella organization representing Ontario hospitals, prompting it to warn that the health-care system is headed for a “crisis” this winter unless the province takes quick action.

With weeks to go before flu season strikes, conditions strongly point to a capacity crunch this winter without further action, the Ontario Hospital Association said in a statement issued Monday.

“Many hospitals have operated through the summer under very unusual and worrying surge conditions,” OHA president Anthony Dale said. “The evidence strongly suggests that . . . further investments are urgently needed this fiscal year in order to ensure timely access to services for patients.”

This past July, 10 per cent of patients waited longer than the provincial average of 30.4 hours to be placed in an inpatient bed from the emergency department, according to the association. This is the longest that patients have ever had to wait in the month of July since the province began measuring these waits nine years ago, the OHA said.

Hospital activity normally slows down in the summer, but over the last few months, many of the province’s largest hospitals were more than 100 per cent full, the organization said.

The OHA’s statement called for “rapid and aggressive new investment in hospital services, and services across the (health system), to avoid a possible capacity crisis within Ontario’s health-care system this winter.”

The organization is hoping that the provincial government will include extra funding for hospitals in the fall economic statement, as it did last year.

Health Minister Eric Hoskins said that while he is aware there is always more work to be done, health care is a top priority for his government. That’s why the province hiked operating funding for hospitals by 3.1 per cent this year, for an increase of $518 million, he said.

Hoskins also pointed out that his government is spending more than $20 billion on hospital infrastructure over the next decade.

The OHA is worried about a repeat of last winter, which saw many hospitals create “unconventional spaces” for patients because they were so full. Hospitals were forced to convert lounges, classrooms, offices and even storage rooms into patient rooms.