ER Right Now

How full the Pontiac hospital's emergency room is right now — stretchers in use and people waiting, from the health ministry's hourly published data.

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Town Tools builds free, public tools for Shawville and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

What these numbers mean

Stretcher occupancy compares patients on stretchers with the ER’s standard stretcher spots. Overflow and shock stretchers count as occupied but not as capacity, so a hard night can read over 100% — that means more stretcher patients than standard spots, not a mistake.

“Waiting to see a doctor” counts everyone — on a stretcher or in the waiting room — who hasn’t yet been seen for the first time.

“On a stretcher over 24 h” counts people whose whole ER stay has passed a full day; most are waiting for a hospital bed upstairs, not forgotten.

A quiet-looking board doesn’t promise a short visit, and a full one doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come — staffing and how sick people are matter more than the count.

Yesterday’s average visit, start to finish: about 0 h for patients on a stretcher, 3 h 30 min for walk-in patients. That’s yesterday’s average — not a prediction of your wait.

Why the ER is like this

A hard stretch, in the hospital's own numbers

The Pontiac Community Hospital ER's average stretcher stay jumped to about 17 hours in 2024–25, from about 7 hours the year before, and the share of patients spending more than 48 hours on a stretcher rose from 1.5% to 6.2% — the only Outaouais hospital whose ER grade declined that year. ER visits have nearly doubled in five years, and at last report 14 of the hospital's 33 beds were occupied by patients waiting for a transfer elsewhere — which is a big part of why stretchers back up.

The doctor shortage behind the ER lines

Around 2,000 people in the Pontiac have been without a family doctor, and Shawville's Lotus clinic — built to keep 12 family doctors under one roof — has been up for sale since early 2025. When people can't see a doctor, more of what they have ends up at the ER. If you don't have a family doctor, register with the province's family doctor finder (GAMF) below; while you wait, 811 can triage most everyday problems.

ER Right Now

About these tools

What these numbers mean

Not sure the ER is the right place?

The hospital

Why the ER is like this

A hard stretch, in the hospital's own numbers

The doctor shortage behind the ER lines

The official picture