Lakeridge Health

Arrived at the Emergency Department at 1:15 pm on a Wednesday afternoon. Talked to the triage nurse about my symptoms - stiff neck, a 6-day long headache that had escalated to the worst I'd ever had, high fever, extreme lethargy, high sensitivity to light and noise, mental fog/dizziness, and chills. She then asked if my throat hurt (it was just beginning to, so I agreed), and she immediately, with a dismissive tone, said "So... Flu." I'm sorry, I guess I missed the part where the flu started with a slowly escalating headache and took 6 days to work into other symptoms? I proceeded to wait 4 hours to not be seen in a side room (an overcrowded, poorly furnished one at that). Since the nurse dismissed me as a case of the flu, I was not considered high priority, and they didn't see the bigger picture (severe headache/stiff neck are often associated with meningitis). I sat the whole time with my head in my hands, trying to block out as much noise and sound as possible. I watched people who showed up after me - people whistling, playing games on their phones, making jokes with friends they had along for moral support - go before me, even though I was barely even able to move. I eventually had to go sit in the hallway because some of the other people waiting got to be unruly (please, for Pete's sake, don't use speaker phone in the middle of a hospital waiting room...) and, finally, had to leave, without ever having been seen, to get my son from daycare. Before I left, I tried to ask the receptionist if I could get any sort of estimate on how much longer I had to wait, or when a good time to come back would be - the middle of the night wasn't out of bounds for me - and she was very rude as well, offering me no help to go on. I left feeling incredibly undervalued, and I'll never come back to the Emergency Department here unless I have literally no choice. By the time I was able to get in with my doctor the following day, I had a fever of 103 and my throat had all but swollen shut. My doctor confirmed viral meningitis. The earlier diagnosis would have definitely led to less overall suffering for me, and would also likely have resulted in a better recovery time. This should go without saying, but I had an awful experience here and would not recommend the ED here to anyone.

I am currently here now .It isnt busy AT ALL .The wait time to see triage was short .Impressive but been waiting 40 minutes to see the doctor and its only me and my husband here..wonder what the wait is...

The only reason I received timely care is because I was here at 530am. All I've heard all day is complaints from staff to each others (standing around talking while patients wait for care) or the triage nurse be extremely rude and short with everyone in the past 2.5 hours. I know it's a hard job... but I'm definately not impressed with their attitudes and treatment towards those who deserve respect and kindness.

What can I say it's a Hospital... It has come in handy over the years and the staff are friendly enough consideing how busy it can get at times. Just happy we have a place closer then Oshawa.

Came in with my wife at 1 30 in the morning and it's now 4:13 am and we're still waiting for blood work they told us 20-30 minutes.... Ha what a joke treated like a piece of garbage we are basically a lost cause... Won't be coming back here , very unprofessional