Ontarians Concerned about Access to Emergency Care

Toronto, ON, April 7, 2026 — A majority of Ontarians (56%) say the Ontario government has done a poor job addressing overcrowding and wait times in hospital emergency departments over the past 12 months, while only 17% say it has done a good job. One in five (20%) take a neutral view, while 8% say they do not know enough to assess the government’s performance.

These findings highlight that emergency department pressures remain a significant concern for Ontarians and continue to shape public perceptions of the health-care system.

Government performance in addressing overcrowding and wait times in hospital emergency departments – past 12 months

Confidence in timely emergency care is low.

When asked whether they would feel confident receiving timely emergency care if they needed it today, only 30% of Ontarians say they would be confident, while two-thirds (67%) say they would not be confident. This highlights a clear gap between public expectations and confidence in the system’s ability to provide timely emergency care.

Confidence in receiving timely emergency care

Ontarians express greater confidence in the quality of emergency treatment once care is received.


While confidence in timely access is low, confidence is notably stronger when it comes to the quality of emergency care itself. A majority of Ontarians (56%) say they are confident they would receive high-quality treatment in an emergency department, while 42% say they are not confident.

Confidence in receiving high-quality emergency treatment

Taken together, these findings show that public concern is driven more by access challenges - such as overcrowding and delays - than by doubts about the quality of front-line care.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between March 19 and 20, 2026, on behalf of the Ontario Medical Association. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Ontario residents aged 18+ was interviewed online via the Ipsos Omnibus panel. Quota sampling and weighting were employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the overall poll is accurate to within ±3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Ontario adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this factum, please contact:
Shashank Sharma
Director, Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

Jennie Choi
Research Analyst, Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

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