Four findings from the ranked series. Each one carries its numbers, its chart, and a citation you can copy.
Finding 1
Queensway-Carleton Hospital averages 4.7 hours before a doctor first sees you, the longest wait of 159 ranked ERs in 2026-08. Southlake Regional Health Centre is fastest at 0.5 hours. The gap between the slowest and fastest ER is more than 9.4x.
Finding 2
From 2026-02 to 2026-08, Ottawa Hospital (The)-General Site got slower by 1.9 hours (from 1.9 to 3.8 hours to first assessment). Health Sciences North-Laurentian got faster by 0.6 hours (from 2.6 to 2.0). These are the biggest movers of 159 ERs with a full year of data.
Finding 3
At Haliburton Highlands Health Services Corp - Haliburton, admitted patients spent an average of 45.1 hours in the ER before reaching a hospital bed in 2026-08, against a provincial average of 18.5 hours. This is the admitted-stay measure: the wait after the decision to admit.
Finding 4
The provincial average wait to first assessment moved from 1.9 hours in 2025-08 to 2.1 hours in 2026-08. Monthly averages hide wide variation: the slowest ERs wait several times longer than the fastest.
Source: Ontario Health monthly per-site tables, 2025-08 to 2026-08 (monthly).