Alberta's health care system continues to face old challenges in new year

It’s a new year, but Alberta’s health care system continues to face old challenges.

“It’s busy and we’re trying to give the best care that we can,” said Calgary emergency room physician Dr. Joe Vipond.

“This is the time of year where we don’t have a lot of family practices open, we don’t have a lot of walk-ins open. So, really, the emerge is the place where people are going for help.”

As of Tuesday evening, wait times ranged from three to five and a half hours at emergency departments in Calgary.

The longest wait times were at South Health Centre, Foothills Medical Centre and Peter Lougheed Centre — all at over five hours.

Alberta Children’s Hospital had the lowest at three hours and 17 minutes.

Vipond says cases of COVID-19, RSV and the flu continue to put strain on hospitals.

“A lot of pneumonia, a lot of illness and people generally being really sick and that makes it more challenging because that means a lot of people we are seeing are having to be admitted to the hospital,” Vipond said.

As staff get sick and burnout, tough decisions have to be made.

“We’ve had a cut back in the number of beds that are available in our emerge for months and months now,” Vipond said.

EMS response times have also been impacted for similar reasons.

Last month, Premier Danielle Smith announced a new initiative that would see about 15 per cent of non-medical patient transports diverted away from ambulance crews.

Tony Pasich, associate executive director of Alberta Health Services (AHS) EMS, is hopeful those steps will improve wait times.

“We’re working with some of the providers that have that resource available to us to utilize them and obviously the more that we keep ambulances available for the more acute emergency calls, the better,” he said.

Meanwhile, AHS said the Alberta Children’s Hospital continues to face increased pressure.

Staff remain redeployed there and away from Rotary Flames House for palliative and respite care.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said collaboration is needed to address these challenges in the health care system.

“Delivering health care needs to be a partnership between all orders of government and the community itself. We need to listen to people who are saying that the wait times are too long and the service they need is lacking,” she said.

Vipond warns if things continue the way they are, doctors and nurses could leave the province and possibly the profession all together.

“I think unless there’s more respect, more benefits, better pay, then we’re going to just continue to see people walk away.”