Fourteen-hour wait at Vaughan hospital highlights staffing crisis in Ontario
- Brandon Choghri
- Apr 9
- 2 min read

By Brandon Choghri Posted April 7, 2025 10:30 pm.
A 14-hour wait in the emergency room of the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital over the weekend is highlighting the ongoing health care staffing crisis in Ontario.
Blawal Aleem and his wife spent Saturday evening, Saturday night and Sunday morning waiting for her to receive treatment.
They were told the wait was due to that fact there was only one doctor on shift in the hospital.
“Twelve-plus hours is not normal in any circumstance and she shouldn’t have to play the guessing game of when are we going to see the doctor,” said Aleem.
Aleem tells CityNews he and his wife were sent to the hospital’s ER by their family doctor and arrived around 6 p.m. Saturday night. They figured they would be home by midnight.
“Thirty minutes more, an hour more goes by, and then the hours just start to fly by. I’m coming outside checking on parking, but I don’t know how much to extend the parking by either,” shared Aleem. “And then we’re out of here by 8:30 a.m. which again is, is very unacceptable.”
While Aleem and his wife stuck out the marathon wait time, he said other patients walked out without receiving any care at all.
“It was packed, it was very busy and we were told that there’s only one doctor to service the entire hospital. Whether you’re a cancer patient, whether you’re someone in ER or someone coming in for emergency, there’s just one doctor,” said Aleem.
Staffing shortages at hospitals have been a major concern for years.
Emergency rooms across the province have even had to temporarily shut down because there was just no doctor available to keep them running.
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