July 4, 2025
Parteek Singh Mahal
SURREY, B.C. – Island Health, the health authority overseeing Vancouver Island, has officially launched a new online tool providing estimated wait times for emergency rooms across most of its hospitals. The webpage, which went live on July 3, 2025, also includes crucial information on ER closures and directs residents to other care options, such as urgent primary care centers.
Marko Peljhan, Island Health’s Vice-President for Acute Clinical Operations, emphasized the importance of this new resource. “It’s important for people to be able to easily find and understand the different care options that are available to them so that they can make the best choice for themselves or a loved one,” Peljhan stated. He clarified that while the wait times aren’t real-time, they are calculated by averaging similar times over an eight-week period and are updated hourly. Island Health estimates that 9 out of 10 patients will be seen within these projected times, with the most urgent cases always prioritized.
While welcoming Island Health’s initiative, B.C. Conservative health critics are demanding that this transparency be extended across the entire province. MLAs Anna Kindy, Opposition Health Critic, and Brennan Day, Opposition Critic for Rural and Seniors Health, are calling for urgent replication of this tool in every region.
“This is a good first step, but the rest of B.C. shouldn’t have to wait,” said Kindy. “We are calling on Interior Health and Northern Health to roll out their own public ER wait time dashboards before the end of the summer.”
The Conservative Opposition argues that the current lack of access to this vital information puts patients at risk, particularly in rural and remote communities. “Families in the Interior and the North are already waiting too long for care—now they’re being left in the dark,” Day asserted. “If it can be done on the Island, there is absolutely no reason Interior and Northern Health can’t follow suit. Patients across B.C. deserve the same access to timely, transparent information.”
The Conservative Caucus is demanding that the Interior Health and Northern Health launch real-time ER wait time dashboards by August 31. “The provincial government ensure consistent standards across all regions. All health authorities make their tools mobile-friendly and update them regularly to reflect current conditions.,” Conservatives demanded.
“This government has made a habit of giving urban centers special treatment,” Day added. “The rest of B.C. deserves the same tools—now, not months from now.”
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