The provincial government must increase acute care capacity and resources.
Every day we experience an under-resourced system that does not provide Albertans the care they need. Edmonton hospitals also support surrounding areas, northern Alberta and other provinces. The Alberta population has reached 5 million people and yet there has not been a hospital built since 1988 in Edmonton, when there were 2.5 million Albertans. The UCP cancelled the new South Edmonton Hospital and their announcement of new urgent care centres does not help the issue as it is not acute care. We still need more acute care hospital space.
Our patients suffer from government inaction to build a new hospital. We frequently think today will be the day the system collapses. In April, we completed a survey of patients. Of our 556 respondents, 24.5% said they experienced care in a non-traditional or non-private space, such as a hallway or waiting room. That is 1 in 4 people and 1 too many.
These are some of the patient experiences they shared:
“I waited 4 days in the emergency room before being admitted to a unit.”
“Ambulance wait times were too long, so we had to drive my brother to the Stollery. 6 hour wait for a blood transfusion. 4 month delay for cancer treatment. His cancer was curable, but he passed away because it spread due to long wait times.”
“It is humiliating and uncomfortable to be treated and sleep in a hallway.”
“There were no wheelchairs left for my disabled husband.”
“My bed had a hole in the middle, making it hard to get out. I had a hip replacement. The hospital was so rundown and unsanitary I could not wait to go home.”
“It is embarrassing to use the bathroom on a gurney and in the hallway while waiting for a room.”
“The emergency room was so overcrowded that I had my head bandaged in the waiting room and in front of everyone with no seat available.”
“The nurses are overworked. Three times my husband’s incontinence pad and the splint covering the wound was urine soaked from over 12 hours without changing. He needed to be better washed because there was still stool on his skin after bathing.”
“There was no room for me to sit beside my husband. He was admitted after having emergency surgery and suffers from dementia.”
“Hospitals are overcrowded. Long waits for help to the bathroom. Once was too long and I had an embarrassing accident.”
The provincial government can no longer ignore Albertans. We need another acute care hospital in Edmonton that supports a population that has doubled since 1988. No more hallway medicine.
