Quebec's ER wait times are the worst in Canada and one Montreal hospital is off the charts

If it feels like a trip to the emergency room in Quebec takes all day, you're not alone. And while the province's long hospital wait times are not exactly breaking news, a new report shows just how much worse the wait is here compared to the rest of the country.

According to fresh data from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), the median ER stay in Quebec is now 5 hours and 23 minutes — the longest in Canada by a long shot. For context, that's almost double the wait in Newfoundland and Labrador, where patients spend just 2 hours and 45 minutes on average.

The study looked at emergency room data across the country for the 2024-2025 fiscal year and found that wait times have been rising in most provinces since 2020. But Quebec consistently ranks near the bottom when it comes to timely care.

Here's how median ER stays compared across Canada:

• Newfoundland and Labrador: 2h45
• Alberta: 3h48
• Manitoba: 4h00
• Ontario: 4h00
• British Columbia: 4h13
• New Brunswick: 4h28
• Prince Edward Island: 4h36
• Quebec: 5h23

(Data for Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia was not available.)

The report also highlighted specific examples, like Pavillon Albert-Prévost in Montreal, where the median length of stay for the majority of patients is over 13 hours, making it one of the worst in the country.

The MEI suggests that overcrowded ERs are partly the result of poor access to primary care and a lack of urgent care alternatives. It even points to France's model of "immediate care clinics" — private walk-in centres for minor emergencies — as one possible fix.

In the meantime, Quebecers are still facing packed emergency rooms across the province. ER occupancy rates have regularly exceeded 120% in 2025, with several Greater Montreal hospitals topping 150% — and some hitting even higher.

If you're hoping to avoid a long wait, Index Santé updates ER wait times and occupancy levels daily, so you can check which hospitals are the least crowded before heading out.

You can explore the entire MEI report here.

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