Red Deer hospital forced to divert all but 'life and limb' emergency surgeries

The Red Deer Regional Hospital is diverting all new patients in need of urgent and emergency surgeries — with the exception of the most life-threatening situations — to Calgary and Edmonton because it is overwhelmed by surging demand.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) said the number of patients needing surgery is ballooning at the same time as the hospital battles a shortage of anesthesiologists and operating room nursing staff.

The facility, which serves nearly half a million people in Central Alberta, routinely runs overcapacity and has been plagued by bed and staffing shortages for years.

• Patient dies in ER at Red Deer Regional Hospital as wait times spike to 14 hours on weekend

• Red Deer Regional Hospital diverts surgery patients over weekend due to wait times

At 9 p.m. on Monday AHS began diverting all urgent and emergency surgery cases — except those considered "life and limb" and those already admitted or already on the urgent surgery list — to Calgary and Edmonton, the health authority confirmed in an email to CBC News.

According to spokesperson Kerry Williamson, all efforts to bolster operating room capacity were exhausted and the diversion protocol was put in place to "ensure patient safety."

"These high volumes are compounded by ongoing vacancies within the anesthesiology team at this time and the site is currently unable to keep pace with the number of cases being placed on the urgent surgical add list. These are cases that need to be treated in less than 72 hours,"  Williamson said.

AHS said three patients had been diverted from Red Deer hospital as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. 

'Reshuffling chairs on the Titanic'

"It's unacceptable and it's untenable. And unfortunately in the 15 or 16 years I've been working I don't think I've seen one positive step into solving this problem. That's what's disheartening," said Dr. Bryce Henderson, an orthopedic surgeon in Red Deer.

"We're just continually reshuffling chairs on the Titanic."

Doctors have been calling for the Alberta government to address the Red Deer hospital's chronic capacity problems and to fully fund an expansion for several years.

Henderson said the capacity issues have been compounded recently by the COVID-19 pandemic, with even more staff off work due to isolation, illness or burnout, as well as increased bed and isolation requirements for people sick with the virus.

• Calls grow for province to fully commit to Red Deer hospital expansion after patient dies in ER

• Doctors say Red Deer Regional Hospital short more than 100 beds and 3 operating rooms

• Red Deer doctors warn of 'shocking' funding gap causing patients to suffer

According to Henderson, the types of patients impacted by the diversion could include those with hip fractures, appendicitis, kidney stones or tumours, and bladder tumours.

"We have so many of them we can't get through them in a reasonable length of time anymore ...There's more coming in the door than we can get in and get out the door. So we're just at a gridlock."

This isn't the first time a diversion protocol has been put in place at this facility, and Dr. Sean Gregg, a general surgeon at Red Deer Regional Hospital, said it underscores a much larger problem.

"Because we run the system on 110 [per cent] capacity all the time, when we exceed that, we really have no elasticity or capacity to adjust and respond," he said.

"When Red Deer has one operating room [for emergency surgeries] and 50 patients waiting for that one room and no capacity to increase the number of rooms that are being run because of a lack of staff, then it becomes safer to move patients to another site rather than wait days and days for their surgery and stay in Red Deer."

Diversions to continue through the week

AHS said it expects the diversion will be in place for the rest of the week and it is looking for ways to resume surgeries as quickly as possible. Efforts are also underway to recruit additional anesthesiologists and operating room nursing staff.

Patients already on the urgent surgery list for Red Deer will remain there. And while the facility's already reduced elective surgery schedule will continue for now, AHS said, some of those procedures may also be postponed.

"We recognize that such a diversion impacts our patients, who will receive care further from home than normal and in some cases, have a procedure postponed," spokesperson Williamson said.

"This is not ideal and we regret the frustration and disruption such a step causes to patients and their families. This also impacts our surgical teams who are doing their utmost with finite resources to see as many patients as quickly as possible."