Durham Area emergency departments “proceed to expertise vital staffing shortages and excessive affected person volumes”, in line with a joint assertion issued Saturday by Lakeridge Well being and the Area of Durham Paramedic Companies (RDPS).
“That is impacting total wait instances for much less acute sufferers and rising the time that RDPS is ready to offload ambulances at Lakeridge Well being hospitals,” it reads.
All residents who want non-urgent medical consideration are being requested to think about different choices for care like walk-in clinics, major care, pressing care, and/or digital care choices close by.
Lakeridge Well being has an internet site detailing all of the pressing care choices obtainable that residents can consult with, which additionally contains an estimated wait time tracker at their 4 emergency departments.
Wait instances are refreshed each half-hour, and replicate roughly how lengthy it might take sufferers to be triaged, registered, and see a well being practitioner. Lakeridge Well being says it doesn’t predict “all the size of keep, as that will depend on the care required and exams a affected person may have.”
On the time of this text’s publication, the typical wait time In Oshawa was two hours and 42 minutes, whereas these in Ajax-Pickering might anticipate to attend a mean of 5 or extra hours.
Anybody who wants speedy medical consideration ought to name 911 or go to the closest emergency division.
“All individuals who arrive at a Lakeridge Well being Emergency Division who’re experiencing life-threatening circumstances and/or are in a state of affairs that poses a sudden menace to life are cared for instantly,” the joint assertion reads.
Life-threatening circumstances can embody chest ache or discomfort, lack of pulse, unconsciousness, bother respiratory, extreme bleeding, shortness of breath, dizziness, and different severe trauma.
