Quebec’s typical emergency room visit took patients 5 hours and 23 minutes last year, reveals new MEI report

• Median length of stay ranges from 2 hours and 45 minutes in Newfoundland and Labrador to 5 hours and 23 minutes in Quebec.

Montreal, June 3rd, 2025 – The median patient visiting a Quebec emergency room last year spent 10 minutes longer there than they would have the previous year, according to a new MEI report released this morning.

“These long wait times are not just numbers — they represent real Canadians who face delays in receiving critical care that cause needless pain or distress,” said Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at the MEI and author of the report. “In all the provinces, wait times are worse today than they were five years ago, a clear sign that our healthcare systems are struggling to provide their patients with timely access to care.”

The median length of stay in an emergency room, from arrival to discharge (or admission to other departments) denotes the middle value of all the times spent by patients, meaning half of stays were longer, and half shorter.

In Quebec, the median patient spent 5 hours and 23 minutes in the emergency room last year. This has increased by one hour over the past five years.

Across Canada, the median length of stay ranges from 2 hours and 45 minutes in Newfoundland and Labrador to 5 hours and 23 minutes in Quebec. At the time of publication, the provinces of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia had not yet provided the median length of stay data requested.

“With patients in Quebec having some of the longest emergency room visits in the country, it’s clear that things need to change,” said Ms. Faubert. “It’s important to note that, while this is the province’s median, patients in some parts of the province are unfortunately having to wait even longer for emergency medical care.”

The longest median emergency room stays in Quebec were in the Laval region (8 hours and 0 minute), the Laurentides region (7 hours and 7 minutes) and the Montérégie region (6 hours and 55 minutes).

The Pavillon Albert-Prévost’s mental health emergency room, in Montréal, takes home the dubious honour of having the longest visits in Quebec, with a median length of stay of 13 hours and 5 minutes last year.

In the number two and number three spots, respectively, are the Royal Victoria Hospital (10 hours and 33 minutes) and the Centre hospitalier Anna-Laberge (10 hours and 26 minutes).

“Having to spend long hours waiting in an emergency room may be the norm in Quebec, but in other developed countries, it isn’t,” noted Ms. Faubert. “It’s clear that solving the issue of long wait times requires looking at best practices from abroad, such as Europe’s mixed systems, to finally give patients the timely access they deserve.”

The report highlights France’s Immediate Medical Care Centres, which are independently operated, though universally accessible, emergency rooms focused on treating less acute cases. The report’s author argues that these centres help to reduce pressure on hospitals by handling the lower priority cases, thus enabling government-run institutions to focus on the more demanding cases that they are better equipped to handle.

You can read the full MEI publication here.

Detailed provincial data on emergency room wait times is available here.

Data on the evolution of lengths of stay in Canadian provinces is available here.

Tailored provincial media releases can be found here: Alberta / British Columbia / Manitoba / New Brunswick / Newfoundland and Labrador / Nova Scotia / Ontario / Prince Edward Island / Saskatchewan.

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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.

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