Thirty-five per cent of patients in the province must wait five hours or more for care, says provincial health and welfare commissioner

QUEBEC – A report by Quebec’s health and welfare commissioner says the province has the worst emergency room wait times in the western world.

The report released today says 35 per cent of patients in the province must wait five hours or more for care, compared to 15 per cent in Ontario and five per cent in the United States and Germany.

Health commissioner Robert Salois describes the province’s emergency rooms as chronically overcrowded and accuses the authorities of lacking the leadership and will to tackle the problem.

The report found that 1.5 million emergency room visits surpassed the Health Department’s maximum wait time in 2015-2016, amounting to 13 million extra hours spent waiting for care.

It includes nine recommendations, including an increased role for nurses.