Residents of Amherst and Cumberland County can now check predicted emergency department wait times at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre before heading to the hospital, after Nova Scotia Health relaunched its online tool on August 13, 2026.
The wait times tool is available on the YourHealthNS app and nshealth.ca. It covers 14 emergency departments across the province, including the one in Amherst. Users can sort emergency departments by distance, facility, community, or wait time, and view predicted waits up to 12 hours into the future.
The tool was temporarily taken offline during Nova Scotia Health’s transition to a new clinical information system. During that time, the health authority reviewed and validated data and refreshed the look and user experience of the tool.
Predicted wait times are based on data for patients assessed as level 3, 4, or 5 on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale. Nova Scotia Health says its testing shows 70 per cent of patients waiting see a doctor or nurse before the maximum predicted time. Predictions are calculated using historical and current emergency department data, such as number of arrivals, average severity of patients, and number of physicians, and are updated every hour.
The original emergency department wait times tool was launched in June 2023 covering 10 emergency departments. The YourHealthNS app was launched in November 2023 and included the wait times tool along with other health services.
