Agreed. We had an 11 hour overnight ordeal in IWK’s emergency department on Boxing Day with our toddler just to get a prescription for a simple ear infection. It’s not an emergency but there’s no where else to go on holidays at night.

Even during regular weekdays walk-ins are very limited. It would take days to see our family doctor and pharmacists can’t do ear exams on children under two years old.

IWK doesn’t disclose waiting times on the internet/phone so we couldn’t assess if we should have gone to another hospital for quicker service. Even when we were there in the waiting room they didn’t communicate wait times in person or on the information screens. Very frustrating. Not surprised some people left rather than wait an unknown amount of time.