Alberta doctors frustrated with ER wait times

Four out of 10 Alberta doctors rate emergency room services in the province as poor to fair, making them the physicians most unsatisfied with ER services in Canada, according to a new survey.

More than 20,000 doctors across the country, including about 1,000 of them in Alberta, took part in the National Physician Survey which was released Tuesday. The survey was sponsored by the Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

The survey found 40 per cent of physicians in Alberta are dissatisfied with patient access to emergency room services, up from 19 per cent in 2004. Country-wide 31 per cent of doctors said they were dissatisfied with ER services.

"Nobody is happy with the situation," said Dr. Rick Ward, president of the Alberta College of Family Physicians and a family doctor for two decades. "Patients are frustrated, physicians are frustrated and emergency physicians are frustrated."

Ward said he's been trying to treat more patients in his office because he knows those "borderline cases" would be left waiting in the ER for up to eight hours.

Dr. Darryl LaBuick, president of the Alberta Medical Association, said the problems in emergency rooms point to bigger issues in the province's health-care system.

Premier Ed Stelmach said Tuesday his government is funding solutions.

"The level of funding for health care in this province far exceeds per-capita funding in other provinces," he said. "We have made strong commitments to public health care in Alberta and we will continue to do that."

But Ward said there needs to be more family doctors and non-emergency beds in Alberta hospitals before the bottleneck in emergency rooms eases.

The Calgary Health Region said patients in the city waited about two hours on average for an ER bed in 2006-07, compared to 68 minutes in 2002-03.