Emergency Wait Times at NGH

Why do people need to wait so long when they visit Norfolk General's Emergency Department? The answer depends partly on what time of day you show up - waiting time can be very short before 7 AM.

Triage determines which patients have the most urgent need -- another determinant of how long an individual may need to wait. Average waiting time is about 4.5 hours which is well within Ministry standards.

Kim Mullins, Director of the Emergency Department at NGH, reported that the Emergency Department logged almost 30,000 patient visits in 2016, which is growing at about 2% per year. Twenty percent of those had no local family physician, compared to only 5% just 3 years earlier. Isn't that an interesting statistic!