Emergency Room wait times have been trimmed at the Owen Sound hospital, thanks in part to a one time grant of nearly 400 thousand dollars from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
President and CEO of Grey Bruce Health Services, Maureen Solecki says in the Scenic City patients now wait an average of 2.4 hours to see a physician, which is down from 3.4 hours.
Solecki says the provincial funding was used to streamline treatment rooms, buy some new stretchers and boost housekeeping hours.
The Ministry of health reports that the average ER wait time in Ontario is 12 hours for complex conditions, while in Owen Sound that wait time is down to 6.3 hours.
If fact, the President and CEO says all of the hospitals included in Grey Bruce health services have better ER wait times than the provincial average.
Meanwhile, with only about 3 months left in the current fiscal year GBHS has a small budget surplus.
Solecki says it would mark the second year in a row that the hospital group has had a budget surplus after all the bills are paid.
Grey Bruce Health Services has an annual budget of nearly 160 million dollars.
