Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering Hospital

I don’t think 2 rating justifies this hospital.
I was here in the emergency recently and l was done within 2 hrs (triage - registration - treatment)
The fast track department staff was amazing. Thank you Team
The doctor from Nova Scotia was fantastic!

One of the worst and third class emergency department….

Even from triage to doctor journey is 5 hour long….

After 5 hours doctor told me take tayneol.

Don’t go Scarborough hospital is far better

0 Stars. Better to die at home than come to this ER. It's just a basic queue, no point of triage. My grandmother who is 90 years old sat waiting for 11+ hrs even after having a history. Close this ER down and save lives.

I don't know what to say, the whole Canadian health system sux!
Unfortunately, this hospital is no different.
It was a nightmare in terms of the time waiting to see a doctor not for an adult but for an infant.
May God bless everyone with the best health

Very slow is an understatement. Nurses do not communicate what's going on with you and are not compassionate towards the patient. Min of a 8 plus hour wait and bring your breakfast, lunch and dinner cause the nurses will not let you know when you can go eat or snack because your not a human being just a number that pays there wages.

As someone who works in the health care field myself, being a patient in this emerg made me open my eyes to see how broken the health care system is. From seeing the triage nurse and then waiting 5 hours to see a doctor, the whole process was terrible. They misdiagnosed me, refused to get imaging, when only then I had to advocate for myself to get the imaging done. The Ontario health care system is broken and Ajax emerg is reflecting terribly. Don’t go here.

I am 8 weeks post-total hip surgery and my experience could not have been better. From the onset of my pre-surgery appointments to the surgery and post-op, through physio, I am more than pleased with the service I received. I have read many unsavory reviews for this hospital and feel compelled to share my very positive experience. As a 70 year old Black female who hears horror stories of BIPOC systemically not always receiving appropriate health care, I need to say this was not my experience at Lakeridge Health Ajax and wish to thank the dedicated surgeon, nurses, and staff for their welcoming and comforting care throughout my experience.

This review is for ER.
Dont waste your time and money (on parking). If you are in sever pain or some condition, dont even go there. Try to stay home and rest or just go to walk-in clinics. I wish I could give zero stars

I would go zero stars.
Over 7 hours waiting just to see a doctor with a 4 year old with a broken arm.
At least let us know that there might be only one doctor or they’ve been flooded with patients. Can’t make a child stay up all night from 1130 to 7am. This is unacceptable

If I could have give a negative star I would. This hospital is the worst hospital I have ever experienced. For context I have experienced, Scarborough Gen, Centenary, Sunnybrook, St. Michael, Micahel Garron, and North York. And this hospital by farrr has the worst nurses, they lack empathy, they are lazy and they don't even know the basics of what is happening with their patients. You will asks them the simpilist of questions and the response will be, let me check their chart. The doctors are nearly the same, not quite. One doctor had a full conversation with me regarding what was wrong with my mother (his was that this is normal decline sometimes when you are in the hospital) Got a outside doctor to look at my mom files and they told me she had pneumonia. When I asked the doctor if my mom had pneumonia, he proceeded to say yes and sorry he forgot to tell me and they are now going to treat her for it. The second day my mom was there she fell going to the bathroom and lost her front teeth, because when she rang the bell no one came. I can go on and on. I should have followed my intuition and never took her there and after she was there, I should have again followed my intuition and moved her. My mother is now dead and I do believe with better care she would have still been alive. So beware and avoid this hospital at all cost.

Worst hospital in the whole world even compared to third world countries. A couple really great nurses surrounded by horrible rude doctors and nurses. When in need or in an emergency you should drive further to another hospital like i do. Your life is in danger having an emergency here.almost lost my life couple times being admitted here for pancreatitus in 2007 and my mom died here at the beginning of covid. Just go to Markham stouffville or toronto where they have real health staff.the people who review and say its a great hospital are probably white.

My recent experience with Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering Hospital was disheartening. My mother, in severe pain, had to endure a ~ 4.5-hour wait in the ER before seeing a doctor. Despite our repeated pleas, pain relief was provided only after a lengthy delay.

When blood tests failed to provide a diagnosis, an ultrasound was needed. Astonishingly, no one was available to conduct this crucial procedure immediately, and we were given an appointment for the following day. This is simply unacceptable for an ER where immediate care should be standard.

We found the staff's approach to pain management concerning. Instead of comprehensive care, the primary response seemed to be dispensing painkillers, in our case, morphine. This practice raises questions about the hospital's treatment standards.

Furthermore, we encountered a lack of professionalism when our queries were dismissed outright by the attending doctor. This disregard for patient queries and concerns is deeply troubling.

Based on my experience and echoed by other reviews, I encourage anyone who has faced similar issues at this hospital to report their experiences to the Ministry of Health. It's vital that we collectively address these issues and demand improvements in our healthcare system!

I had hernia surgery this morning. Everyone was great. Very kind, caring.and compassionate. Can't say enough good things about the doctors and especially the nursing staff.

Unskilled nurses and physicians who do not communicate between each other for specific patient needs. Unfortunate malpractice as a result of lack of care and respect. Please do not bring your loved ones to pass in this hospital.

All the negative reviews are not far fetched. I’ve made complaints several time about my patient experience at this hospital.

First experience was during the 2020 pandemic. Had deliver my child here and L&D staff are good. They were and are always short of staff especially in the PPD Ward. Whenever I ask for help it was difficult to get nurse to attend. They make seems like you’re disturbing their life.

Few years later: I Had a great experience in the Labour&Delivery yet again, The L&D staff are good. They’re friendlier, they assisted me well and were able to answer my questions.
Now the PPD ward staff are the unfriendly and miserable ones and would say things like you should bring your own "sanitary pads" to someone that just gave birth 24hours prior

The staff in the Postpartum Department seems to not want to help for anything. They all look so miserable. Especially when you are paying for private ward and they treat you like nothing. If you’re in Labour go to another hospital this is not it. I don’t even want to talk about their triage. Terrible just terrible.

The only good thing that help me through my stay while my newborn child was transfer to the NICU is the NICU staff. Excellent staff, gréât at what they do even though they are super busy they still find a way to smile and make the mothers feel at ease especially during postpartum.

Aside from that Lakeridge Health is just a disappointment.

This place is awefull. Do not come for emergency. They told me to wait for XRay and after 2hrs I've found out the doctor did noy send the xray order yet.

This is the worst hospital by far. Rude staff and long long wait. The nurses don’t even want to talk to you. They are definitely in the wrong profession.

Went to the hospital by ambulance for reasons surrounding my mental health. I waited hours and hours but no one ever called my name/identification
code (wristband). Also the staff almost seemed to lack empathy; I understand that working at a hospital comes with its challenges (as with any other job for that matter), but I don’t feel like the hardship justifies treating people/patients in a rude and heartless manner- Interrupting you before you get a chance to finish explaining how you feel to abruptly remind you that what you’re saying is irrelevant to the question, Paramedics leading you to sit down on a chair for a long while whilst they make jokes among themselves, and so on. I truly believed that of all places, I’d be understood and cared for at the hospital, but that certainly wasn’t the case at this hospital. All in all, terrible experience.

Zero star if possible. The health care system is broken and it cannot be fixed. To fix the system, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and premier Doug Ford (Ontario) need to go. My wife stayed in a private room at this hospital for birth of my daughter. The room cost $300 per day. The room was not cleaned for 3 days while she was staying in the room. Garbage was not picked up, bloody floor and washroom was very disgusting for $300 a night. I will prefer a private hospital where I can pay for a service and I know that I am well taken care of. The current Trudeau and Ford government run health care system is not cheap but ridiculously expensive to the taxpayers. Citizens are paying for service they are not getting. Not sure while people are paying for a room when the service is not there. Very sad.

Walked in the er room at 640 on a saturday night. Walked out after 2 am sunday morning. Only 1 doctor on shift. 3 hours in the waiting room. The rest of the wait time was done waiting in a small room with sick kids coughing. Better off driving to Toronto or even across the border than waiting here

**Waited 5 hours when I was struggling to breathe! **

Horrible nurses, was in ER because I had a bad cold and then also.hyperventilating! Thought I had covid or something, breathing was a huge struggle. I am autistic and it takes time for me to process answers and the nurse who did the initial screen kept interrupting me and yelling at me that I wasn't fast and loud enough even after I had mentioned I was autistic. Not to mention hyperventilating while trying to talk! Once admitted, was waiting for the doctor in the room and it was taking awhile. I was getting sleepy and trying so hard not to pass out at that point so I asked another nurse near by if he was coming nicely (was desperate) and needed oxygen or something, I get yelled at "THE DR IS COMING" jesus lady! Sorry that years ago I went here and put me in a room and literally admitted that they forgot I was in there.

After waiting in the waiting room with everyone else basically coughing everywhere, 5 hours of me hyperventilating in front of the registration desk did they finally diagnose me with asthma which my cold exasperated. The dr who saw me was great, xray tech was great. That's about it.

Lakeridge is horrible, been to oshawa location for my first birth where I almost died and was neglected and abused my several nurses. Not alot of hope here either. Went to cobourg for my second and it was night and day! THAT'S how a hospital should treat people.

DO NOT GO HERE!

My toddler had dislocated her elbow today and I was dreading taking her to Lakeridge health after seeing all the reviews. I asked my husband that we should go to Sick kids but he said Sick kids is extremely busy and this is our home hospital and we should try once before coming to a conclusion. So I literally went expecting worst service worst doctors and thought we would end up going to sick kids at the end. However our first point of contact the triage nurse was so warm, welcoming and understanding. Within an hour my daughter was seen by the doctor and he also said it's a common issue and fixed the issue instantly. Everyone including the caretaking ladies were kind and made me surprised at the service we got today. If all the staff are as knowledgeable and understanding of the people who goes there for help then there would be such an increase in clients satisfaction and trust for this hospital. I wish them all the best to improve their public image and have these bad reviews turn by taking care of anyone who goes there in need of help. A church and hospital is not much different as they both are places where people go with hope and faith
.

We recently came to Ajax Pickering Hospital by ambulance for an emergency situation. The paramedics, doctors, nurses, technicians and surgeons were all incredible. You often hear negative stories about this hospital, but I have to admit that they were 11/10 excellent.

Been to this hospital for outpatient care for about a year, and had two surgeries. In one case this was for a biopsy & discovered a tumor. The surgeon removed that, extending what should have been 20 minutes to close to 3.5 hours! This likely delaying some of those in ER with the sniffles. My apologies to Karen.

In all times I've needed this hospital the staff have always been helpful, friendly & professional. Kudos to them all.

Worst place I ever went to take my mom specially east wing nurses have attuide nurses argue with each other so not professional and half of them don't know what there doing and give you wrong information and they look like they don't even like there job

Worst place to visit if you have an emergency. I have been experiencing a severe and unbearable back pain asked the nurse if they could lend me a stretcher or even a flat surface so that I could lie down as I wasn’t able to neither stand or sit due to the intensity of the pain, but all I got was a refusal to my request and that too in a rude tone. The staff here are very unprofessional and have no empathy towards patients. Finally after waiting for hours I couldn’t bare the pain that I was in and decided to go home where I could at least lie on my bed and visit a private clinic instead of this useless ER.

My wife had a scheduled c section and has had her waiting over 24 hours extremely understaffed totally unacceptable

Thank you to all the staff who helped me, my wife, and my daughter through the long labour and our post delivery stay. All of the staff were well knowledged and were extremely helpful at all times. Me and my wife can't imagine having gone through this without the assistance of the staff. Thank you all so much!

If I could give zero stars I would. Absolute joke of a hospital. Spent more than 30 hours in emerge & have been here for the past 12 days (waiting for the past 3 to get discharged). Nurses straight up just don’t care. I went the whole night without pain meds after my surgery because they “forgot about me” & believe me I was paging & begging for them, they just never came. Was guaranteed discharge for the past 2 days & was watched as me/my family packed up all my things & waited around all day for the go ahead just to come in after 7 hours of waiting “the doctor went home hours ago”. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Any time you ask a question the answer is “I don’t know” or just a bunch of huffing & puffing & attitude. Complete embarrassment of a health care facility

Worst emergency department I was in pain and person he is laughing on me and entertaining others, I requested him I am in a pain and he didn't bother to help me.

I have been going to this hospital for years for both out patient procedures and emergency care. I have not had any problems with the facility or the staff. There are a lot of complaints from people about both of these on this site and I have no idea what people expect when they walk into an emergency room and don't expect a long wait. I recently had an out patient procedure and it occurred in a timely manner and the doctor and nurse that attended to me were great. That is why I decided to leave a positive comment while most reviews here are very negative.

Twice my mother has been brought in through emerg. What a deplorable dept. This hospital has been a joke for 40 years and it hasn’t improved at all. The staff are overwhelmed and rude. Yelling at my mother to stay put. Never getting answer without us having to track someone down. We had to teach ourselves to turn off the beeping machine since no one ever came when it went off. Good grief they couldn’t even offer her a pillow because “they’re like gold” and they can never find one. The emerg wait room is a tiny, dirty room with no staff on hand to help. We didn’t need the kiosk since we weren’t sick. We just wanted to know if our mother had arrived by ambulance yet

I went there to get my 11 month old treated for vomiting and diarrhea to face 5 hrs wait time and then come back without seeing a doctor

ER nurse was very rude and lacked empathy, I had severe pain from Acute Cholecystitis and stones in my Gallbladder, I couldn't breathe properly and was 33 weeks pregnant and I was sitting in the chair, she said to me "its not like you're in labour so you can walk, also why are you breathing like this breathe normal" Its like she expected me to not respond to the intense pain I was feeling: (and she didn't care at all, I hope I never have to visit this Hospital again ever!

1) nurse is rude. 2) service getting worse. 3) stuff needs training. 4) longest wait time. 5) shortage of doctor. 6) emergency is just show off. 7) limited space, needs to accommodate more when needed. ………
Hospital management or, whoever related running operations of this hospital, should be doing better job or else step down (sorry to be very rude). Thank you

My dad was treated here after passing out and being taken there by an ambulance. It was such a nightmare to try to find out from a doctor what his results or progress was like, nurses would take a message and say the doctor would call us only for the doctors to not call us and we'd go days without knowing information! The nurses were not allowed to tell us and repeatedly told us that as we were desperate for anything we could find out and they'd advise us only the doctor could which I guess I can understand as that's the doctor's job, but Lord help me if the doctor would pick up the phone to keep the super concerned family informed just once a day! My dad said the doctor would come visit and just ask his symptoms and not tell him either what was going on, he's older and not attentive to these things. I would go to another hospital if you can.

My wife broke her knee on June 13 and the put her in cast. After 9 week of being in a cast they removed it she started therapy but could not bend knee so back to see this doctor Fayed so she had a mri and surgery on Sept 30/21 to bend her knee
Started therapy again but not change cannot bend knee
This ridiculous how she is been treated
Very disappointed with this hospital

Worst hospital ever.waiting time is never ending.we just spent a whole night sitting here with a baby waiting for the doctor. Better to go to any of the scarborough hospitals

I have to admit that my very limited visits to this hospital emergency dept have been very long and stressful. Mostly due to the shortage of Doctors! My reason for this review is thank the staff of the day surgery and the Gynecology Department, I did have an overnight stay and could not have asked for better care from all the staff. Could things improve at all hospitals YES! But we must also give credit where credit is Due!

My dad died here 5 years ago through no fault of the hospital, he had a massive brain aneurysm and became brain dead pretty instantly, it was extremely traumatic And I was angry and avoided this place for a long time. But I just had surgery here myself and the experience has been wonderful, from pre-op appts, to the anesthesiologist taking lots of time to answer all my questions, to the nursing staff day of surgery and in the OR to the surgeon. Everyone was extremely kind, supportive and answered all my questions. For my first surgical experience I have zero complaints.

Scarborough general has better wait times. Waited 2 hours tonight didn't get to see a Dr. A girl had heavy bleeding from her leg they still made her wait in the waiting room

Will never come back here even If I am dying

My experience at this hospital was amazing and very pleasant. I had my baby girl delivered there, all the doctors, nurses are so professional, kind and friendly. They make sure that I understand everything and have all useful information that I needed. Thanks so much for your hard work and your kindness!

Update: after 2 weeks and 3 visits they found a clot.went 3 times and they sent me home with 2 undiagnosed clots. Ultrasound is closed in the evening so if you are dying and need fast diagnosis, you will have to came back in the morning. MRI only available weekdays felt like I am in a grocery store not a hospital.
Got admitted and the stuff kept asking me everyday to get the Covid vaccine and they kept trying to force me to take it. Really felt depressed and not in safe hands.

Same as the other hospitals in Ontario garbage. Waiting time up to 9 hours just to see a doctor.
Rude staff or most of the them. I broke my hands before and stayed home and it healed wrong because I didn’t want to wait the long waiting time.
This time went with a note from my doctor which they didn’t even read and ignored.
After 5 hours waiting tried to go to my car to drink water and was told that I am not allowed to leave and come back so basically jail. They don’t care about you or your pain, they just care about the big fat cheque. Really disgusting and one day you all will be treated the same way.

Wish I could give this place a 0. Do not take kids here to the ER. They don't care! You can wait hours for nothing!

This is the worst hospital ever. You are seriously better off staying at home. Being understaffed is not an excuse for being terrible people too. I know too many people who have needlessly died here. Sickening.

Was in emergency sept it was so dirty the doctor was rude and didn’t have an answer, after triage was sent to sit in a tiny room with about 6 others I chose to stand in the hallway.great way to pass covid.when the doctor gave someone a diagnosis it was not private at all, everyone could hear! I really can’t believe I was in Canada. I don’t want to be there as much as the doctors but that’s what they chose to do and there is no need to treat someone like garbage! If I could I would give a rating of -1…

Wish I could give this place 0 stars. Worst hospital I've ever been too. Staff in triage are very rude, little to no covid procedures in the waiting room, no communication to many of us who have been waiting for hours, can't eat or drink (not like anything is open or available), and a senior citizen in a wheelchair has been asking for a glass of water for 2h and being ignored by staff.

The nurses at this hospital are amazing, kind and very caring! Thank you for going above and beyond and being so wonderful!

If I wasn’t in pain and had to drive myself. I would have gone to Markham Stouffville. This Hospital has been poorly managed since I moved here 15 years ago. Take my advice for anywhere else!

They've let jokers work as doctors. Wrong information conveyed all the time. Sick kids is a lot better place. Avoid these half baked idiots if you can. The ratings are so low for a reason. Hungry for funding, zero benefits passed on to the community. Nothing has improved.

Extremely bad, I watched somebody bleed out and ask for help and be told to wait there turn. That same person demand to be seen, escalated things (as he should), and was told to leave. Security was called on the gentleman bleeding out his foot was escorted out the hospital who could barley walk. If I could give no starts I would, as they DO NOT prioritize severity. I left after waiting 4hrs.

Last spring, I had a broken bone in my foot looked after here. Yes, you have to wait in Emergency - in every single hospital in Ontario. Yes, cases are prioritized according to severity. Doctors and nurses work long hard hours. They come into this profession wanting to help you, but if a hospital has such consistently bad reviews, that is mostly a reflection of the management. It is also a reflection of the provincial Ministry of Health. There are good and bad employees and managers in all businesses. My foot was looked after reasonably promptly and competently in an acceptable length of time on a Saturday afternoon (three to four hours). Thanks to the staff, who work weekends, holidays, overtime, and at all hours of the day for looking after me. I am not in the medical profession, but I appreciate the hard work of those who are.

There should be a way to give negative 5 star. I am a healthcare worker. Based on my experience in ER, this is a GARBAGE place. No coordination among doctors and triage department. Customer service is BIG ZERO. Nurses are rude. As if, they come to work eating Bitter Melon.

Rating based on care at Labour and delivery ward.

Majority of nurses were amazing and helpful. One nurse during my birth completely traumatized me, was rude, ignorant, disrespectful to my birthing partners and was clearly "running the show" did not have any of my wishes respected by this one nurse and I'm surprised with her bedside manner she is working in a labour and delivery ward. The mother is in charge of how she wants to birth and how it happens. This woman took that away from me and ruined what should have been a beautiful event.

Overall experience was horrific and traumatic, especially for a very anxious and scared first time mother.

I will never recommend this birthing ward mainly due to a few choice nurses and the absolute unprofessional conduct of them.

Do your research before considering this hospital to delivery your baby. There is definitely some nurses in that ward that should NOT be working with mothers and babies.

Imagine not wanting to call 911 for an emergency because it will land you here, how messed up is that? Majority of the nurses here you can tell hate their job. It’s not fair that people get mistreated so often at this hospital. I do have respect for nurses and doctors and I do understand we are in a pandemic and ER is crazy busy, but people do have other emergencies which can be life threatening.

I will add that in isolation- these nurses actually care, in the ER, not so much.

I would honestly recommend that anyone who is driving to this hospital make a u-turn. You are better off going Markham Stoufville which is 20 ish mins from Ajax, but won’t have you waiting 8-10 hours and will have nurses and doctors who are so nice and actually care or any other hospital.

THE WAITING ROOM - ONE STAR!

In the hospital with my mom writing this as I sit with her waiting.

This ONE STAR rating is specifically for the lack of sanitization in the Emergency waiting room.

It is shocking to see patients vacating a seat and said seat taken by another and another WITHOUT any sanitization.

This must be some breach of COVID protocol. How is this possible in a health care facility where sick vulnerable patients have gathered?

I called a health care worker friend who was equally appalled. She told me it is NOT the norm because Markham Stouville is vigilant about sanitizing their waiting room.

Is Ajax Pickering short of funding? The $16 -$20 parking fee should be more than enough to cover the cost of contracting at least ONE cleaner to sanitize the seats. It is a small space and the seat turnover rate is about every 35 - 60 minutes. How hard is to achieve this?

THE CARE - 5 STAR
The nursing staff and Doctor on duty today Friday, August 20 are just superb. Everyone of the nurses were really polite and behaved in a respectful manner towards my mom. The doctor took a while to come (is was a pack room). He displayed great bedside manner. He did not rush my mom, spent the time to listen to her responses to his questions and thus was able to determine CT Scan was needed.

CT Svan was done in lightening speed with a nurse wheeling my Mom on the bed to do it.

STILL waiting to get her final report but at the time of writing I am well pleased with the nursing care mom has received.

CONCLUSION
I will still keep the ONE star because the lack of sanitization in the waiting room is really frightening and should be immediately addressed.

This is mass infection waiting to happen. You can do better Ajax-Pickering, I know you can!

Please clean up your act!

I wish i could give them no star, i had the worst experinece here, i waited for 8 hours and i was dying with the pain and there are so many other patients just like me suffering from svere pain and waiting from hours, also that pain wasn’t normal my bladder was full because of infection, they made me feel i should leave this country because of the poor medical system, and the lady at reception she was so rude they don’t know what humanity is, please provide better system for medical emegencies and some docters as well,