DOCTORS WARN OF ALBERTA ER CRISIS
PATIENT VOLUMES UP TO 20% HIGHER THAN BEFORE PANDEMIC
Emergency room doctors across Alberta are sounding the alarm on worsening access to care they say could soon become a crisis.
If action isn't taken to increase health capacity soon, Albertans could lose the ability to access timely emergency care, the head of a group which represents more than 450 emergency physicians across the province wrote in a recent letter to Alberta Health Service leadership.
“We're starting to get where we're functioning over capacity regularly,” Dr. Paul Parks told Postmedia Sunday. Parks is the president of the section of emergency medicine at the Alberta Medical Association. He penned the letter to AHS CEO Dr. Verna Yiu Friday.
“We're all worried that if plans aren't implemented and things aren't done to mitigate it, it could hit crisis levels.”
Earlier this week, AHS warned Alberta's nurses union that staff may be recalled from vacation in order to aid ERs and intensive-care units overwhelmed by a combination of staff shortages and a surge in patients requiring care in the health authority's South and Edmonton zones.
Acute-care and emergency bed closures have plagued the province this summer, though AHS officials have maintained the reductions are typical and are not affecting patient care.
As of Friday, 24 communities in central and north Alberta were facing some reduction of care beds. Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital has also seen closures, leading to some cancelled elective surgeries last week.
Most ERs are currently seeing patient volumes up to 20 per cent higher than pre-pandemic volumes, Parks said. Some of that is the result of patients delaying treatment for issues, but there's also an increased rate in patients presenting with mental health or addiction issues. Increasing COVID-19 hospitalization rates during the surging fourth wave of the pandemic also play a role.
“All of the emergency departments across the province, volumes are going up quite a bit, wait times are going up quite a bit,” Parks said, adding there's also been an increase in patients who leave facilities without being seen by any medical professionals.
“On the front lines, we can see it's getting worse and that staffing is a major, major issue.”
In a statement Sunday, AHS said it welcomed the letter and is reaching out directly to physicians to discuss the issues raised.
“AHS understands the pressures our emergency departments have been under, both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic, and acknowledges the concerns the physicians have noted in the letter,” the health authority said.
“We truly appreciate the contributions of health-care professionals and the hard work and efforts that they have made during the pandemic and continue to make under current conditions to provide the best care for patients.”
Parks said in the letter emergency doctors were confused by a recent opinion column by Yiu in the Edmonton Journal, which argued “there is no bed shortage in Alberta” and current staffing levels are temporary and attributable to vacations.
That message downplays the magnitude of the ongoing staffing challenges and is at odds with what doctors are seeing each day on the front lines, Parks argued.
“AHS leadership is really playing down bed closures and staffing issues and things that are actually really very significant,” he said, saying some staff including senior nurses are moving on to other jobs due to the stress of the pandemic.
“It does happen every single year that there are seasonal variations on staffing. (But) staffing issues have been building and have gotten way worse than they've ever been.”
AHS said Sunday Yiu's op-ed was intended to reassure the public that Alberta's health-care system remains safe and accessible while acknowledging the temporary bed reductions.
STAFFING ISSUES HAVE BEEN BUILDING AND HAVE GOTTEN WAY WORSE THAN THEY'VE EVER BEEN.