Posted on Tuesday December 16, 2014
Durham Region - - Lakeridge Health wants families to know all of their health care options so they can spend more time together enjoying the holidays and less time waiting in a busy Emergency Department.
"We have some of the busiest ERs in the province and over the holiday season they get even busier," says Lakeridge Health President and CEO Kevin Empey. "We work hard to keep our wait times down but that can be hard when our volumes jump significantly."
On an average day, people with minor cases can be seen and treated within 2 to 2.5 hours, but wait times are expected to rise over the holiday season as more people use the ER and urgent cases are seen first.
Durham families are advised to check out all their health care options in this YouTube video, which include:
Checking ahead of time with their family doctor or clinic for their holiday hours;
Knowing where your nearest urgent care or walk-in clinic is located for non-urgent health care needs; and
Calling Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0000 to speak to a Registered Nurse.
"Of course, if it’s an emergency, we’re always here to provide high quality health care as quickly as possible so people can get back to their families," says Empey.
For more information on finding health care options nearby, including family doctors accepting patients, visit Ontario.ca/healthcareoptions.
