05/18/2026
Niagara Health is refuting this report.
So....have you been in the ER in the past 2 months? If so, how long was
your wait and on which date? How long did it take before you were admitted in a bed.
It;'s a good thing that Port Colborne has an Urgent Care operating from 10 am to 8 pm. Wait times would be longer in the hospitals.
𝗪𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗡𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗮 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘂𝗽 𝟰𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁
“When numbers are presented without context or don’t reflect current conditions, it risks discouraging people from coming to the emergency department when they need care,” said Niagara Health.
May 17, 2026
2 min read
By Welland Tribune staff
A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says wait-times at hospitals, including Niagara’s, have risen dramatically.
Provincially, wait times are up 52 per cent, said the centre (CCPA).
“In Failure, by Design: Ontario’s Deepening Hospital Funding Crisis,” CCPA senior researcher Andrew Longhurst found admission wait times at Niagara Health hospitals have gone up 40 per cent since 2020-21, with 90 per cent of patients in emergency departments waiting 73.8 hours, up from 52.9 hours.
Provincially, 90 per cent of patients waited 44 hours for admission in 2024-25, a 52 per cent increase over five years, Longhurst said during a news conference in Niagara Falls Monday.
Niagara Health, in an emailed response this week, said when inaccurate and outdated information circulates about emergency department wait-times, it has real consequences.
“When numbers are presented without context or don’t reflect current conditions, it risks discouraging people from coming to the emergency department when they need care.”
Niagara Health said its most recent data shows 90 per cent of patients are assessed, treated and, when applicable, a decision to admit is made in 15.3 hours or less.
“For those who require admission, the total average time to move to an in-patient bed is 56.4 hours. That second phase reflects broader system pressures, particularly the availability of beds and the number of patients waiting for alternate levels of care (ALC), not delays in emergency assessment or treatment.”
The hospital system said its most recent data indicates it is making progress on wait times.
In 2024/25, the time to decision to admit was 16.5 hours, and the time to an inpatient bed was 64.8 hours.
“That second phase reflects broader system pressures, particularly the availability of beds and the number of patients waiting for alternate levels of care (ALC), not delays in emergency assessment or treatment,” said the emailed response from Niagara Health.
“That improvement reflects focused work to strengthen discharge planning, avoid unnecessary admissions by connecting patients to care in the community, and work with partners to move alternate level of care patients into more appropriate settings. This work is focused on improving patient flow so people receive care in the right place and reducing the time patients spend waiting in the emergency department,” Niagara Health said in its statement.
Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, said in a release issued after Monday’s news conference that a sharp increase in wait-times occurred before the latest round of hospital job cuts that commenced at the end of last year. The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions is the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
“By any metric, our hospitals require a substantial increase in staffing and capacity to improve wait times, reduce hallway medicine and enhance the quality of patient care,” said Hurley in the release.
“However, the government’s stubborn refusal to meet rising hospital costs is taking us backwards whereby jobs are being eliminated every day even as staffing shortages suffocate the system. The political choice to starve our public hospitals is a failure by design,” he said.
The release said the majority of Ontario’s 136 hospitals have carried operational deficits since 2022, and this puts an already precarious public system at risk, said a CCPA news release. Niagara Health had a $20.16-million deficit in 2024-25, up from $2.47 million in 2022-23.
“Over the last three years, our research shows that predictable increases in Ontario hospital costs are being met with consistent underfunding from the provincial government,” said Longhurst. “When hospital funding increases fall below the required six per cent, the health-care needs of the population go unmet. It’s a preventable crisis, and it is only deepening.”
CCPA’s analysis showed smaller and rural hospitals are the hardest hit when it comes to deficits, as hospitals with operating revenues less than `$100 million had disproportionately more deficits in 2024-25. The smaller hospitals made up 61 per cent of the hospitals in deficit but comprised only 49 per cent of all Ontario hospitals, its release said.
“The Ontario government’s funding austerity, and the attitudes that deride health-care workers, are harmful to the workers as well as to the patients and communities who depend on their skills and commitment,” said Longhurst. “This all contributes to deteriorating working conditions, rising vacancies among hospital staff and, now, job cuts.”
He said CCPA is strongly recommending the provincial government implement an aggressive plan to address the hospital funding and capacity crisis, rather than laying off staff.
“Hospitals need certainty in funding levels, which should increase by six per cent annually. Without this, the consequences are disastrous for patients.”
