Frustrated Alta. ER patients calling 911: union
Wait times at hospital emergency departments have become so long patients are calling 911 for help, the union representing Alberta paramedics charged Wednesday.
"Patients are sitting in the emergency department, they've been waiting for hours and they finally get so frustrated that they call 911," said Elizabeth Ballermann, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents the province's EMS workers.
Ballermann said the statistics show that in the past week, the average Edmonton EMS hospital wait time was one hour and 32 minutes, an increase of six minutes from the previous three months.
Long waits keep paramedics off the road, as they need to stay with their patients until an ER stretcher can be made available.
"Sometimes you'll see eight trucks or more at the hospital and this is not unusual," said Dr. Layton Burkart, a doctor who works in the ER at the University of Alberta and Royal Alexandra Hospitals in Edmonton.
Paramedics are echoing concerns raised by Dr. Paul Parks in a letter to the province that was leaked two weeks ago. Parks, the emergency medicine section head for the Alberta Medical Association, warned of a "catastrophic collapse."
Slight drop in numbers
The letter detailed numerous examples submitted by doctors where extreme wait times compromised patient care.
Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky announced new provincial benchmarks last week to limit wait times but said the problem wouldn't be resolved until Christmas.
Zwozdesky has blamed the problem on patients who need continuing care occupying acute-care hospital beds. A lack of acute-care beds means patients are spending hours in the ER.
On Wednesday, Zwozdesky said the province is opening more beds in Edmonton and Calgary hospitals that have borne the brunt of the ER crunch. He cited figures that show the number of people waiting for an acute-care bed in the two cities has come down slightly since September.
"That's all part of the plan that's in motion right now, and I think that as we see it come to pass that it will start to show us some real changes in the numbers," he said.
Zwozdesky said he will soon release a five-year action plan that should address some of these issues.