Quinte Health's emergency wait times explained: ongoing struggle, recent improvement
Skip to ContentNewsLocal NewsProvincialCanadaWorldSpecial-SectionsSportsLocal SportsBaseballBasketballFootballHockeyJunior HockeyCurlingAuto RacingOther SportsEntertainmentLocal. . .
Skip to ContentNewsLocal NewsProvincialCanadaWorldSpecial-SectionsSportsLocal SportsBaseballBasketballFootballHockeyJunior HockeyCurlingAuto RacingOther SportsEntertainmentLocal EntertainmentMoviesMusicTelevisionBooksGamingCelebritiesLifeTravelFoodHealthComicsPuzzlesAdviceOpinionColumnEditorialLettersAll NewspapersAdvertisingAdvertising With UsAdvertising SolutionsPostmedia Ad ManagerSponsorship RequestsClassifiedsObituariesBusiness AdsJobsLives ToldShoppingDrivingOntario FarmerHealthingPuzzmoDiversionsPuzzlesComicsNewslettersProfileSettingsMy SubscriptionsNewslettersCustomer ServiceFAQNewsSportsEntertainmentLifeOpinionAll NewspapersBusiness AdsJobsShoppingDrivingHealthingPuzzmoNewslettersNewsLocal NewsQuinte Health's emergency wait times explained: ongoing struggle, recent improvementRecent improvement amid continual challenges; latest stats releasedPublished Jul 28, 2026•8 minute readA bed in Trenton Memorial Hospital's emergency department sits empty Wednesday, July 22, 2026 in Trenton, Ont. Wait times at some Quinte Health hospitals have decreased recently, and some are, at times, shorter than the provincial average. Photo by Luke Hendry/The Belleville IntelligencerQuinte Health officials are reporting some success in lowering wait times in their hospitals’ emergency departments while acknowledging the ongoing efforts to lower them further. Vice-president and chief nursing officer Lina Rinaldi and emergency and rural medicine director Lena Bruce explained their latest results, and future work, in an online interview with The Intelligencer. Recommended VideosThe corporation has, since 2020, seen an increase of 13 per cent in the number of patients admitted to hospital. Most of that is due to patients at the CTAS 2 and 3 (urgent) levels, Rinaldi said. Visits by people ages 75 and older have increased by 16 per cent, while the number of days of inpatient medical care has jumped by 33 per cent. The latest statistics available on Ontario’s wait times webpage are from May. They show Quinte Health making substantial gains in some categories and losing ground in others. Those numbers, however, vary by month, category, and hospital. A site may have below-average results in one month and good results in the next. Senior staff say they’re encouraged by what seems to be a positive trend. “We’re pretty proud of our May results,” Bruce said. (Full statistics are listed at the end of this story. )The statistics released by Ontario Health show patients at the two smallest hospitals, North Hastings Hospital in Bancroft and Prince Edward County Memorial in Picton, waited for less time than the provincial average of 1. 9 hours before being seen by a doctor. Trenton Memorial’s average wait matched the Ontario average, while Belleville General’s was about 50 per cent longer at 2. 9 hours. Looking at the total stay in the emergency department for high-urgency, non-admitted patients, only Belleville General exceeded the provincial average of 4. 6 hours. Bruce said all Quinte Health hospitals are quick to offload ambulance patients. The smaller hospitals’ lengths of stay vary partly because less-acute patients’ waits are longer when critical cases arise. Since 2023, she said, wait times at all Quinte Health hospitals have been decreasing, though “not by a ton. ”“There has been considerable improvement efforts to improve patient flow, which helps to reduce the overall length of stay in the emergency department,” president and chief executive officer Stacey Daub wrote in her June report to the board. Your weekday digest of the top stories from our newsrooms in Cornwall, Brockville, Kingston and Belleville. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Eastern Ontario Midday Roundup will soon be in your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againHer report showed Belleville’s length of stay, for example, decreased from 12. 6 hours in the last fiscal quarter of 2025 to 8. 7 hours in the second fiscal quarter of 2026. The fiscal year starts April 1. Why are BGH’s wait times so long?Belleville is not only the most populous municipality in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties. Its hospital also sees the most patient traffic and many of the most challenging medical cases. Rinaldi said Belleville General is Quinte Health’s regional centre for more acute and specialized care, including intensive care and surgery. “That sometimes impacts our flow, because we’re bringing in patients from the other three hospitals, and that shows in our data, as well, around the wait times in Belleville. ”Bruce agreed, saying while the smaller hospitals also see critical and complex patients, their percentages of such cases tend to be lower than Belleville’s. She said more than 30 per cent of Belleville’s emergency-department patients are classed as emergent patients – the second-most acute level on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS). The highest, most acute level, known as CTAS 1, is for patients whose conditions are immediate threats to their lives or limbs, and those who need resuscitation. While the longer waits in Belleville cause some residents to go to smaller hospitals – including those in Campbellford and Napanee – Quinte Health staff encourage people to go to their local hospitals, rather than leaving their immediate areas. Bruce noted one critical patient can shut down a smaller emergency department for hours, so people who travel there still risk long waits. The same can happen in Belleville, she said. Rinaldi said patients with true emergencies get care quickly no matter where they go, since that is the main focus of emergency departments. Reviewing systems, making changesBruce has worked in emergency departments for nearly 25 years. She joined Quinte Health in February and said she started reviewing departmental performance by looking at each zone of the departments, their processes, patient flow, efficiency, and how things escalated when there were more patients, or more patients with acute conditions. “We’re looking at standardizing our practices across the four sites,” Bruce said. “How do we get things done sooner so that … the patient in emerg’s length of stay is shorter?”Bruce said there are ongoing discussions with teams about making improvements and recognizing when they happen. “Celebrating even the smallest successes helps with encouraging and motivating staff. “Our staffing is always a challenge,” said Bruce, “so we’re looking at our workforce stability, recruitment, retention. ”Quinte Health had, in recent years, come to rely upon nurses from outside companies to fill gaps in schedules. That need has since ended after several years of successful hiring. “We have had somephysician staffing challengesat all four sites,” said Bruce. “Belleville seems to be stabilizing. ”In June, chief of staff Dr. Colin MacPherson said he was optimistic no emergency departments would need to be closed this summer due to a lack of doctors, but such closures remained possible. Below-average population healthRinaldi said the leadership is always looking at the health of the population and its effects upon emergency departments. That includes the social determinants of health and demographics of the population. The area’s population health has, in some categories, historically been worse than the Ontario average. A 2016 reportby the area’s health unit, now part of Southeast Public Health, found area residents were, on average, of lower income, had less education, were more isolated socially, and smoked more frequently than average. Food insecurity is also a persistent problem, though not unique to the region. The area also has a large number of senior citizens. Here and elsewhere, hospitals are seeing more patients with multiple and increasingly complex conditions. Primary care, long-term care increasingThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health care systems around the world, and recovery took time. Rinaldi said recent hopeful developments should soon help to ease the burden on hospitals. Several long-term care homes have either opened or will soon open in the region, and more primary-care providers have been recruited. Belleville alone has recruited 25 doctors in this term of city council, now in its fourth year. “We’ve done some tremendous work there. Hopefully, over time, we’ll see the benefit of more people being attached to primary care,” said Rinaldi. There is ongoing work between Quinte Health and other agencies and providers in the region to divert non-urgent patients from emergency departments and to get people care at home and in other settings. Rinaldi said Quinte Health is working with and grateful for other allied agencies, such as Hastings-Quinte community paramedics, addictions workers, primary care providers, and the Homelessness Addiction Recovery Treatment Hub Hastings Prince Edward. Difficulty in discharging patientsRinaldi noted the problems in emergency departments and others aren’t limited to more people coming into hospitals: there is also difficulty in helping them to leave. Some, known as alternate-level-of-care patients, are waiting to be accepted into long-term care or to go somewhere else. “We’re over-capacity at all our hospitals,” she said. When there aren’t enough inpatient beds, the flow of patients slows or backs up all the way through the system, right to the front doors: the emergency departments. People waiting for inpatient beds wind up spending longer in emergency rooms, which in turn limits the ability to bring in newly-arrived patients. “We’ve worked really hard on that,” said Rinaldi. “We’ve really stabilized staffing,” she added. “We’re very proud that we’ve not closed any of our emergency departments in this region, over the last five years, when other communities have been under a lot of pressure. “However, we work short at times, especially in Belleville. ”Recruitment efforts continue, with municipalities involved in that work. Seasonal surges, such as those caused by influenza and otherrespiratory illness, can foil even the best efforts to avoid capacity and wait-time problems, but teams are trying their best, Rinaldi said. August is when Quinte Health and Southeast Public Health typically start their joint planning for flu season. “One of my bigger focuses right now is flu season,” Bruce said, explaining she wants to ensure there is enough planning for surges of patients and bed-capacity shortages. Seek the care you needRinaldi asked for public compassion given the pressures on hospital teams. At the same time, she said, it’s important for people to know those teams “are there for the public” and people should always seek the care they need, and, in an emergency, start by calling 911. In the meantime, she said, Ontario’s government is “well aware of our performance. “They’re well aware of our over-capacity,” she added, and staff are in “close contact” with those in Ontario’s health ministry. She said there is “good support” from the ministry. “We’re not the only community that is in this situation,” Rinaldi said. The numbers: Quinte Health emergency department wait times by hospitalThe following times are averages measured in hours unless otherwise noted. All statistics are from May 2026, the most recent numbers available from Ontario Health’s website. Wait for first assessment by a doctor in emergency departmentOntario: 1. 9Belleville: 2. 9Trenton: 1. 9North Hastings: 1. 8Prince Edward County: 1. 2Length of stay in emergency for low-urgency patients not admitted to hospitalOntario: 3. 1Belleville: 3. 9Trenton: 2. 8North Hastings: 3. 5Prince Edward County: 2. 4Percentage of low-urgency, non-admitted patients finishing their emergency visit within the target time of four hoursOntario: 75Belleville: 58Trenton: 80North Hastings: 69Prince Edward County: 86Length of stay in emergency for high-urgency patients not admitted to hospitalOntario: 4. 6Belleville: 5. 3Trenton: 3. 9North Hastings: 4. 4Prince Edward County: 3Percentage of high-urgency, non-admitted patients finishing visit within eight-hour targetOntario: 89Belleville: 86Trenton: 94North Hastings: 91Prince Edward County: 96Length of stay in emergency for all patients admitted to hospitalOntario: 17. 1Belleville: 15Trenton: 14. 9North Hastings: 12Prince Edward County: 9Percentage of patients admitted to hospital from emergency within eight-hour targetOntario: 30Belleville: 32Trenton: 24North Hastings: 46Prince Edward County: 71Quinte Health reports positive trends, shorter waits, and budget surplusQuinte Health emergency departments swamped, with long waitsJoin the ConversationThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more aboutcookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to ourTerms of UseandPrivacy Policy.