Toronto General Hospital Emergency Room

I have a good experience here. I arrived at the emergency room at 17: 00 and got checked in instantly. Waited for about 1h10min and get called by a registered nurse (I guess?) right behind the entrance and she helped me measure my glucose level, blood pressure, and other stuff. She is very professional and help me get relived. Then I moved to the Rapid Assessment Center (RAC). Waited for about 1-2 hours and got called by the nurse to take a blood test. Some people get called for CT scans. The RAC bulletin suggests the wait time for blood test is about 1h while CT is 2h. I was get called again by the nurse around 8pm to wait for the doctor in a small room. The doctor came to see me after about 30min with his assistant. He left his assistant with me to listen to my description of symptoms again. Another 30min later, they came back and described my disease with me and discharged me. I spent in total about 5 hrs there. I’m OK with such waiting time considering the number of patients there (around 30ish waiting and 20ish being treated). My only suggestion is to bring chargers or battery bank with you in case of your phone dies

If you have other options… I do not recommend this ER. Before I go on a rant, I should say that the staff is still quite nice and efficient. They’re trying their best, which is why there are 2 gold stars.

In short, but we waited almost 3 hours before being called in. The worst wasn’t how long it took, but what we experienced while waiting. The waiting room had at least 4 “patients” clearly on drugs - barely clothed. They were high, they were coughing without wearing masks, and just shouting at patients.
It was the most disgusting and disturbing experience, almost like riding the TTC - If you know, you know.

One man was crawling on the floor and then on chairs. There was another who wanted to smoke inside the waiting room. A patient tried to escort him outside, until a nurse got him onto a wheelchair and pushed him outside to go smoking. The man on the wheelchair was offered warm clothes and pants, but all he cared about was his pack of cigarettes. The nurse even had to go find a lighter because his was broken. Is it the system encouraging these people to come to the hospital for shelter and assistance, or is it just this part of town (DT East) that has all these disturbing people? Truth is, they’re taking up capacity in the healthcare system without providing any sort of productive value to society. Am I really the only one who thinks and feels this way?

Anyway, is there any Toronto hospital that you guys recommend instead?

Came into the ER this past Monday morning and I was SO impressed by the triage process, the cleanliness, the efficiency and the friendliness of everyone I encountered. Within 5 mins of arriving, my vitals were taken and in less than an hour I saw a nurse and got bloodwork/ urine test done. I felt like I was in an upscale clinic, it was SO clean. I was in and out in under two hours.

Súper profesional, very very good people. Great team, sooo happy the way they take care of my mom. Thank you so mush!

If I can choose zero star I would have. I waited 9hours, spoke to two nurses about my symptoms and the nurse drew blood work which left blood patch on my hand (bruise due to multiple attempts) then when the doctor (Tessa Ringer MD) finally arrived he was nonchalant and wanted me to repeat myself then he sat me there for another 20min to go check blood work. When I expressed the fact that he wasn’t providing me with any info on the symptoms, he said it doesn’t make sense and he will refer me to AACU and I can speak to patient relations if I don’t like it. I then went to meet the nurse who provided the transfer papers and when I asked what the transfer was about and that I’m in the dark about the whole thing because the doctor hasn’t given me any probable cause and reasons why I’m being transferred. She said she’s just a nurse and cannot explain so I have to wait again (this was around 7am and I arrived at 9pm). I told her I can’t wait and that the doc wasn’t even done with me so how is he somewhere else. The security guy chimed in and said I was stressing the nurse and she cannot help me so I can go to mount Sinai if I’m not satisfied. The the security continued to act hostile, mimicking me and was very harsh towards me just because I asked a question. The nurse then said I should log in online to check my blood work results which the doctor never explained. Upon checking online for the results, the doctor wrote a feedback and said my symptoms might be ——— but he never mentioned that in person. The doctor also wrote other feedbacks which didn’t match what I got in person. I had to now start googling all this when the doctor could have explained in person. I don’t know if it’s profiling or whatever but I am very disappointed about how I was treated and will never feel comfortable going to this clinic ever again even if my life depended on it. The security guy action towns was the worst. I really hope they take actions on this because no one should ever have to experience this behaviour from a medical place.