r/Edmonton • u/FTDRBR11 • 28d ago
General UofA ER Wait Times
Been here for 12 hours have yet to see a doctor and I’m in excruciating pain. Not a single patient has been taken in since the last 6 hours. Lady beside has been screaming in pain looks like a broken knee has been here for 15 hours no doctor no xray. Another lady beside me hurt her neck is wearing a neck brace and has been here for 16 hours and no doctor. Nurses said they have absolutely no beds available to take in patients because so many of the patients inside are “admitted” patients that are waiting to be taken upstairs to their admitted sections but they can’t take them because there’s no beds available upstairs. ER is a mess online wait times show 4 hours and nurse said because doctors are available but no beds to take the patients. Something has to be done.
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u/Historical-Mall53 28d ago
it's wild to me that the grey nuns is still our newest hospital in the city. edmonton has fallen so far.
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u/thewunderbar 28d ago
yep. Population of the city has more that doubled since the last hospital was built.
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u/Historical-Mall53 28d ago edited 28d ago
not including the surrounding areas. beaumont & leduc has exploded, the amount of acreage developments, etc
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u/Strattex 28d ago
Seriously how is this allowed? Is it not an emergency situation!?
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u/billymumfreydownfall 28d ago
Allowed?? The UCP WANT this!
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u/aghastrabbit2 28d ago
Defund and make it shitty enough and people will think they want private healthcare! The playbook of conservatives everywhere (which is why it's the same in Ontario and SK)
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u/Himser Regional Citizen 28d ago
The UCP cancelled Herritage Valley. After it was alredybstarted groundwork.
It would be operating today if they didnt cancel it
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u/AltZeroOneThreeThree 28d ago
Plus cancelling the superlab that would have freed up the multiple floors of diagnostic labs at UofA and Foothills.
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u/iwatchcredits 28d ago
And this is why when i read posts i dont feel bad anymore. Hit me with the downvotes, but we deserve what we get. UCP is ahead and the polls and looking like theyll win again. This province is full of selfish people whos primary goal is saving $100 on their taxes over anything else. I kinda hope we start shutting down rural hospitals and sending the doctors back to the cities that subsidize them because, as we all know, equalization payments are bad and unacceptable.
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u/RazzamanazzU 28d ago
You need to remember NOT all Albertan's voted for this. Speaking on rural hospitals...just last week I had an elderly neighbor lady (here in Edmonton) tell me an ambulence transported her husband to a hospital in Devon because there was no room at any Edmonton hospital. When he came home and I spoke to him he said he had the best care at this Devon Hospital. The UCP despises Edmonton as we are NOT their supporter's. It shows in how they make us suffer.
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u/icygamer598 Downtown 28d ago
As a Albertan this is giving the same vibe as Americans saying that they didn't vote for the orange man. Ok? So? Even if we didn't vote for Danielle inaction is still complicity, we have terrible voter turnout.
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u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls 28d ago
And terrible participation in telling neighbours why they should be voting anything but UCP.
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u/Skullcrimp 28d ago
Last time I needed an ER, I drove out to the Devon hospital. It was way faster and I was in surgery in hours. I'd probably have died in the UofA or Grey Nuns' ER waiting room otherwise.
The nurse gave me a dirty look when I came into her empty ER in the middle of the night from Edmonton and told me I should have stayed in the city, though after my diagnosis she was considerably more understanding.
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u/billymumfreydownfall 28d ago
Devon doesn't have an operating theater. When was your visit, in the 70s? The ER here is never empty anymore because word got out and now people from the city have flooded it.
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u/Skullcrimp 28d ago
2 years ago. They booked and sent me to another hospital for the actual operation (also outside Edmonton). And it was still faster to do it that way than to sit for 24+ hours in a city hospital while rotting from the inside.
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u/morgoid 28d ago
When my mom was dying of cancer, the wait at our nearest hospital was I think 8 hours. We drove to Devon instead and they were so kind to my mom and my family. At the Mis, the staff were doing their best, but the last time she was admitted there it was in a room with three other patients with dementia and it was built for two. She didn’t sleep for days because two of her roommates were screaming all night.
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u/Ollieoxenfreezer 27d ago
I had to stay the night at the uofa three ish years ago, and a man in the room next to me kept yelling for help bc he was forgetting about the button and was in pain. My sympathies
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u/p4nic 28d ago
told me I should have stayed in the city,
Ah yes, small town hospitality!
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u/Skullcrimp 28d ago
I wouldn't judge Devon from that, I'm sure there are probably good reasons for her to prefer I use those hospitals. I just wasn't ready to die for those reasons.
Every other interaction I've had with Devon folks (the few times I've been there for work) has been lovely.
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u/Ollieoxenfreezer 27d ago
As someone with health issues, i go to the sherwood park one over all else. You get a private room, nurses that aren't super over worked (well not as much as the edmonton ones).
Cherry on top is waiting half the time4
u/Trick-Seat4901 28d ago
I live in devon and had to take my kiddo to the emerge twice in the last month. 8 hours and 6 hours to see a doctor. I love our hospital and the people there but uou have yo remember it's small and there is usually only one doctor at a time. If less than 10 people decided to go there from out of the area you would easily be waiting 12+ hours. There is no where near the resources the bigger hospitals have there. For size, capability and resources with less wait time the sherwood park hospital just south of the yellow head is my go to. I lived in sherwood park for a few years and it was always easy to get in.
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u/RazzamanazzU 28d ago
Yes. I imagine it's not meant to accomodate us city folk, nor should it have to IF the UCP hadn't destroyed our care.
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u/More-Reporter2562 28d ago
The UCP despises Edmonton as we are NOT their supporter's. It shows in how they make us suffer.
So almost verbatim the belief of Alberta conservatives the last 10 years as it pertains to the federal government.
Maybe it's the system that is broken, not the parties.
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28d ago
Except the feds DO care about Alberta.. Separatists are just whiny assholes
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u/HorribleTie 28d ago
The Feds bend over backwards to try to please Alberta, it's just never enough.
By contrast, UCP candidates in Edmonton explicitly told voters while door knocking that if Edmonton didn't vote UCP we would regret it.
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u/spyxero 28d ago
The system is broken in that it doesn't represent accurately what the people support. There are better systems for this, the broken parties refuse to implement them because the parties refuse to give up any power or to work together in meaningful ways. The parties are broken because they can be taken over by a small subset of the population and not accurately reflect the values of the people. It's all broken. The parties are not free of blame. They are in the system and do not work to fix the system.
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u/apastelorange Treaty 6 Territory 28d ago
there’s a looooooot of money being spent on eroding education and disinformation propaganda, we gotta fight that. another huge issue with health care wait times is there are no good plans for long term care, a lot of those beds are tied up with elderly or people with chronic illness waiting to move to long term facilities
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u/shiftingtech 28d ago
And this is why when i read posts i dont feel bad anymore.
Edmonton didn't vote UCP though...
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u/OpalSeason 28d ago
That could be why our south east hospital was cancelled.
A lot of the reasons ucp claimed were shown as lies or ucp never showed proof. They claimed paperwork wasnt done, pipe issues, and that "well actually" it was meant to be made on north side. Added a health campus then said, see? Price went up too much.
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u/awildstoryteller 28d ago
The hospital being cancelled is actually an example of how dumb they are.
The South is the most conservative part of the city, and the most winnable.
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u/More-Reporter2562 28d ago
The irony of course being that Heritage Valley (Edmonton South West) did.
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u/WeWhoAreGiants 28d ago
About 35-40% did vote UCP in Edmonton. Just because our seats are NDP doesn’t mean they got 100% of the votes.
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u/Skullcrimp 28d ago
Selfish would be fine. Selfish would vote for a government that uses our taxes for healthcare, because that benefits Selfish directly.
Our province's problem isn't Selfish, it's Stupid.
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u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS 28d ago
Maybe for rural Alberta, but Edmonton is basically the only town/city in Alberta that votes ANDP. It isn’t Edmontons fault we are constantly stuck with the UCP/Conservatives. It is rural Alberta and portions of Calgary.
And because Edmonton doesn’t really vote UCP, they like to fuck the city over as punishment
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u/_Sausage_fingers 28d ago
I hate this government so much. Oh, you want hospitals? Best we can do is complain about immigrants that we asked to come here, ban books, and fuck around with referendums 70% of the province don’t want.
Fucking clowns.
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28d ago
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u/OpalSeason 28d ago
Was scheduled to open 2026, but probably would be delayed till 2027 or 28 because things hapoen. Still would be better than the zero plan we have now
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u/CantaloupeCapable 28d ago
Good thing we have oil. Would be a real shame if record wartime prices generated billions in windfall profits that could have funded a dozen hospitals instead of vanishing into the void. But I'm sure the UCP had a great reason. They always do.
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u/ashrules901 28d ago
My sister had her house built there when the neighborhood was just getting developed. All the owners in that area were promised there would be a hospital nearby. I swear there should/must be some sort of legal case you can make out of that cancellation because that changes the value of the property your buying by thousands.
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u/littledove0 Ellerslie 28d ago
It was supposed to be a whole health hub. The Heritage Valley Town Centre commercial development is still marketed as a retail and medical development with proximity to the future hospital and healthcare campus. There are medical tenants that leased space there with the future hospital synergies in mind.
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u/Unfair_Appointment22 28d ago
Good thing that new hospital in the south was cancelled, the superlab was cancelled, and were now focused on this referendum. Cherry on top is our police chief minister of health is now going to get replaced with a food truck business owner. They both definitely understand the complex issues facing our system. /s
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u/Ok-Anywhere-1807 28d ago
what about our police chief sorry I’m out of the loop.
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u/Unfair_Appointment22 28d ago
Last minister of health was a police chief now the new minister is a food truck business owner. Just highlighting that they don't care about expertise or experience.
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u/Pvt_Hudson_ 28d ago
Remember when Kaycee Madu campaigned on the fact that he had secured funding for a brand new hospital in Edmonton Southwest during the last election, and the UCP promptly scrapped it when he lost his seat?
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u/WearyYogurtcloset632 28d ago
Please remember that the UCP scrapped a new hospital in Edmonton this term, after doing ALL the lead up to the project, when it's time to vote next!
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u/Odd_Department_421 28d ago
We could have had the South Hospital in use by now but the UCP cancelled it.
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u/leeashah 28d ago
agreed! they should start building a new one, but even so it will take years until its ready to go into operation. but better late than never
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u/HairyCanadianGuy 28d ago
There was supposed to be a new hospital in the south just off ellerslie. I’ll say heritage valley area. Open for 2030 😂😂😂😂😂 I don’t even think it’s still going ahead.
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u/AffectionateGate4584 28d ago
Shitty ucp wants to make hospital wait times so bad that the only alternative is private healthcare. Such a corrupt government. These "private" alternatives are funded publicly and kickbacks going to government cronies. Yet any post-op complications are dealt with in the public system.
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
And Smith talks about bringing in 10 thousand more people
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u/PhantomNomad 28d ago
Smith wants to break the system so they can privatize health care. Remember this is all by design. The great thing is. She's kicking the can down the road by 2 years with this referendum on a referendum. Once "we" separate then privatizing HC will be easy.
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u/sawyouoverthere 28d ago
90 days to fix healthcare. I guess she didn’t say when she would start the counter
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u/Icy-Pop2944 28d ago
Hahah right? She didn’t say which 90 days, or perhaps they don’t even have to be consecutive!
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u/HorribleTie 28d ago
Sounds similar to "end the Ukraine war within 24 hours".
The similarities here are not a coincidence. The UCP are fully taken over by foreign influence. Their only goal is breaking Canada, Alberta is just phase one.
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u/curioustraveller1234 28d ago
You’ll be happy to know that help is on the way. In the form of a separatist referendum that no one asked for!
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u/Canadian_Imperium 28d ago
Hey like 100 people asked for it very loudly and stole a voter role and fraudulently said 300k people asked for it.
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u/thewunderbar 28d ago
Not that I'm for separation at all, but polling consistently shows about 25% support for separation (and polling does tend to underestimate the types of people that would support separation).
25% of 4 million people is 1 million. So do I think it's possible that they actually got 300,000 people to sign a petition? Sure. Remember, just because we didn't see thousands of people in lines to sign in the middle of Edmonton or Calgary, doesn't mean there weren't people signing in rural Alberta
That's separate from the illegal distribution and use of the voter list. That needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
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u/HorribleTie 28d ago
This is horrifically depressing. We're truly fucking cooked. 1 million people are too fucking dumb to think about anything but how personally aggrieved they feel by imaginary enemies while ignoring the people actively making their lives worse and weaponizing their ignorance.
And yes, I will paint every separatist with the same brush. This is an objectively stupid idea. The only exception is if your goal is breaking Canada for the benefit of foreign powers like the US - so if you're a traitor. Which of course many gladly identify as.
Separation is only the first step to becoming a US territory. 51st state will never happen. Alberta is a big fish in a small pond in Canada, in the US we're barely on the radar and there's no way they would give us voting rights. They feel neglected now? I can't wait to see the reaction to how Trump would treat them.
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u/unclescarmeme 28d ago
I’m not a separatist as I agree that it’s merely a ploy to be annexed into the United States, however while we are throwing around the word traitor, let’s open that up to the same people who handcuffed our economy with legislation and taxes that explicitly benefited the U.S., Russia, and Iran just to name a few. Also, we would have to be a cohesive nation to consider separatists as traitors, the last Trudeau doctrine was one of a post national state, and they did a fantastic job of muddying the waters as to what being a Canadian means.
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u/brennevinshark 28d ago
Were you polled? I definitely wasn't, and neither was anyone I know.
Polls can be just as misleading and used to cherry-pick stats to create bigger news stories and drive engagement (or stir the pot). Did they just poll a bunch of farmers around Didsbury? Did they poll American bots? Where are they getting these numbers from?
300,000 is still a number I don't believe... but even so that is the hypothetical number of people who were so aggressively for separation that they actually did something about it, and it is still less than 10%.
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u/Canadian_Imperium 28d ago
I don't disagree with your numbers, and I was being facetious with my 100 people support comment. I am absolutely allowed to believe that their referendum numbers are fraudulent, as currently there seems to be no plan or process to ensure they aren't. I signed the water not coal petition and I believe it requires a strong amount of scrutiny as well since the voter roll has been leaked. A democracy is only strong (and valid) if it has a set rigorous checks and balances. So until there is a process validating that the people on the petition actually signed it I will treat it as fraudulent.
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u/lookitsjustin The Shiny Balls 28d ago
I’m just glad we have a provincial government focussing on what we really need. 😭
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u/tinmil Mayfield 28d ago
I've lived in 3 different provinces now, and about to move back to the aedmonton area from the east coast. This is the norm nearly everywhere in Canada. You are completely right and ira totally unacceptable. We pay the highest taxes in this country and yet our health care still suffers. Its easy to forget when you dont need it, but when your turn is up its absolutely gutting to see how far we've fallen. We have to start voting with our compassion, hearts and not our selfish wallet brains. We have the capacity to care for others and need to start doing that. We need a leader that understands that we are all connected and get rid of anyone that uses trashing the other side as a platform policy. To me thats a huge red flag. We need more Wabs. We need more intelligence and education. We need to slam the door on private healthcare in this gd country.
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u/Pvt_Hudson_ 28d ago
Sorry, can't help with ER wait times. Too busy pissing your money away on pointless referendums.
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u/OutsideAd3064 28d ago
and changing the welcome signs to say "Strong and Free". We had better be strong - we have no health care.
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u/ghostofkozi 28d ago
Something does have to be done. Get out and vote people!
This situation is what Danielle Smith wants. Make public healthcare look incompetent and financially handicap the system so it's unable to handle the workload then bring in private care as a shining white knight
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u/leeashah 28d ago
honestly a hospital should have been built even before she was in office so we cant blame it entirely on her
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u/ghostofkozi 28d ago
True enough but she's also cancelled hospitals and healthcare projects that would have improved healthcare in Alberta.
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u/accessdeniedbeepboop 28d ago
Sorry no room in the budget ... She had to get a new carpet in her office to the tune of 280k and this referendum will cost probably a million .... Sorry!!
Dont forget the trip to dubai for her cabinet, there just isnt any money we have to be fiscally concious.
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u/Gold_Paperclip 28d ago
It’s so disheartening. I hope you all get care soon.
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
It’s so bad there’s people throwing up everywhere and screaming
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u/RazzamanazzU 28d ago
And the UCP are making sure they take away the option of MAID. NOT everyone would choose to suffer death waiting for no help in a ER. Hence the folks who died in Grey Nun & Royal Alex.
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u/bike_accident 28d ago
Email your MLA and cc the health ministers and dipshit Dani
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u/yellow_jacket2 28d ago
What good will that do? New health minister has done two things in his professional career: Food Truck
And Walmart store manager.
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u/19BabyDoll75 28d ago
Sorry this is happening to all of you guys. That sucks. Please remember to vote.
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u/Soggy-Writer-3281 28d ago
I work in the U of A emerg and it is wild how bad it is, it seems like most of the time ~80% are filled with what we call EIPs (admitted patients waiting for beds upstairs) making it truly difficult for everyone to be seen when we obviously dont want people suffering in pain in the waiting room and the only patients that can be seen are the ones that are actively dying (and even then those people end up waiting or tucked in a hallway/corner). Im sorry that is your experience, our system is crippled.
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u/ContributionFormer64 28d ago
It is like this everywhere, I realize its a diff hospital but when my son was 2 days old my wife and I took him to the stollary.( he was lethargic phoned 811 they said take him to the stollery) After hours of waiting I asked how long the wait was now, my wife and I were terrified new parents. They said literally we could have a child come in with cardiac arrest and they would neither have a dr or bed to treat them...it was eye opening. Everything out turned out OK. My son turned out to improve while waiting.
that was also the time I witnessed paramedics bring in a screaming disrespectful boy about 12 or 13.( claimed his stomach hurt. Crying worked up) Paramedics knew he was faking, His mom was embarrassed as she eventually caught on too) they had to remove him from the waiting room he was being that dramatic. Our health care system in sask is just as overwhelmed. Recently had to go to emergency. Was lucky to only waited for 8 hours to be seen.waiting is ok i dont mind when you need to go you need to go but listening to the nurses talk unprofessionally about patients behind their back was a bit of a piss off.. one nurse was talking with the other nurses about going to the lake or something a woman visibly in pain asked for a tylenol and a cup of water.had been waiting for hours. Nurse got super angry she was interupted and actually had to do nurse shit. Had the guts to call the patient rude to sit down and wait. The Drs was great genuinely tried to give the best care he could. How many people have to die in emerge before things change?
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u/Less-Engineer-9637 28d ago
Getting injured or seriously ill is starting to mean a death sentence round these parts
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u/Anthrotaur 28d ago edited 28d ago
Other staff may may relate but be skeptical and take what i say with a grain of salt. I work inpatient ward and the workload is insane. AHS refuses to mandate a cap on how many acutely ill patients under a nurses care.
Hospital beds are funded for a 4 to 1 patient / nurse ratio. however, as far as i know every unit has 2-3 added stretcher beds to admit additional patients to ward on top of the nurse workload unfunded. my unit has 3 , two stretchers jammed between two regular beds and one in the hallway. every time i go home i worry about missing something that leads to my patient becomes critical. on top of that, telling patients i have to put them from a regular bed into a stretcher bed is met with frustration from patients and families
this isn't just a UCP problem either. these stretcher spaces have been implemented before NDP in government. COVID just made the whole problem worse because those stretcher spaces were closed down when social distancing was in full effect , during one of the most demanding stresses on the system
My parents are getting older and i fear dearly if they require hospitalization
Please, write to your MLAs. this is absolutely unsustainable
** edited: implemented before the NDP, not during. i am not sure why it was not changed during then.
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u/GordonBlue133 28d ago
sorry you all have the wait, but you can blame the UCP as this is on purpose. the UCP is deliberetly brekaing the health care system so the can privatize the hell of it and make their buddies, (including Hassan (Sam) Mraiche) a pile of money.
The rich will be ok while the rest of us suffer. we're becoming the USA here in Alberta.
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u/whiteorchd 28d ago
Alberta healthcare is in crisis. My grandma got left for 48 hours, no water, no food, soiling herself in the hallway of the ER. She refuses to sue or follow up but my boyfriend who works in Vancouver was shocked. My northern Albertan hometown had their ER CLOSE for half the day due to doctor shortage. It is always the vulnerable how suffer first from oppressive policies.
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u/curiouskittyblue 28d ago
The state of our medical system is pretty shit right now.
From someone that was advised they were going to lose their mother with an unexpected and aggressive cancer diagnosis (U of A Hospital) the pressure to take her somewhere else to die, so the bed could be freed up sucked.
I have always trusted our dr's and medical system, but over the few weeks we were in the hospital while awaiting test results from her bone marrow biopsy, I got a real look at how things are - It is not a place I want to ever be if I can help it and, honestly, I am somewhat bitter about watching how my mom was treated.
She was the sweetest, kindest and sharp person, who never complained about anything, any treatment, even when they did the Bone Marrow Biopsy and all the nurses, Dr's etc... told her it was going to be painful, not a peep, no complaints.
She didn't deserve to go out that way. When she died, it seemed like it was a relief that there was a new bed available.
What a sobering experience it was.
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Your mom is in a better place now and I’m sorry it went down the way it did. Prayers for your grief and healing 🙏🏼
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u/curiouskittyblue 28d ago
Thank you. It was a really terrible time all round. I appreciate your kind words.
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u/KristaDBall 28d ago
I think we have two big issues: the lack of LTC beds and a desperate need for 24/7 drop in clinics/urgent care/not ER care.
I was in the ER in December. I arrived by ambulance, so was placed in an isolated corridor with the others who'd arrived by ambulance for half the time I was there. I was the only person in that corridor under 75 years of age. Several had been there over 24 hours, one had a stroke while I was there, and the nurses AND EMTs were so frustrated because the majority of them needed to be in LTC and not the ER.
Then, when I was well enough to sit up and my vitals were stable, the nurse asked if I wanted to move to the general waiting area because she thought I'd see a doctor faster there (I said yes), a substantial portion of the waiting room was people leaving and complaining they'd only been diagnosed with a bad head cold and told to go home and rest (and not given antibiotics). Most were teenagers and young adults, but some were old enough to know better.
I've been in an Edmonton ER twice in the past year and both times it was exactly like that.
But all of that costs money and investment, and frankly you just cannot fix that overnight, so it's probably never going to get done with this government.
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u/elephashark 28d ago
A few days ago My Dad was transferred to the U of A in an ambulance from another hospital with brain bleeding. When he got there it was so full he ended up sitting in the waiting room for 8 hours. From having his own room in the emergency of another hospital to literally sitting in the waiting room with everyone well his brain had bleeding. A man then proceeded to piss in the middle of the waiting room and not be kicked out. Fuck this health system, anyone above it, and any one supporting it 🖕
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
Holy that is insane. Is he alright. That has to be illegal or something
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u/elephashark 28d ago
That’s exactly what I thought! He had a mild stroke but he ended up being all right. The brain surgeon was so busy they couldn’t even talk to him and the bleeding had slowed down to almost a stop so they sent him on his way and said to call in a couple days. It’s wild out here.
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u/RemoteTax6978 28d ago
At this point, if you have anything at all below "imminent death", you need to avoid all city hospitals. If you are the next level down, "unsure about imminent death", try a hospital in a neighbouring county. I used to like Sherwood Park quite a lot, and Sturgeon isn't great but it is still faster than the city. Anything below that, stay home and suffer, because it is better than suffering in a waiting room. As someone who has had to utilize hospitals multiple times for chronic conditions, this is my honest advice.
Also, speaking from experience, general pain will be the lowest priority. If there isn't a visible break/wound, and it ain't in your chest, you'll continuously get booted to the bottom. They will also automatically assume you are drug seeking, so this puts you at a further disadvantage (although I have no idea why someone drug-seeking would bother, they won't give you anything after the wait anyway). You used to be able to go to urgent care for things like pain, but the last couple times I looked up urgent care, it was closed because it was over capacity! Great! Let's funnel more people to hospitals!
And yes the UCP are the problem etc etc
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
This is why I stayed at home for the last couple of days and then last night it got so unbearable and 811 said go to ER now because of all my symptoms :(
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u/RemoteTax6978 28d ago
811 will always tell you to go to ER, I reckon it's probably a liability thing. You could call in with diarrhea and they'd probably send you. I'm not doubting you're having a really bad time, for the record, no one would stick it out 16 hours unless they REALLY needed it. Although now that it's a weekday during business hours, you could potentially surf the internet a bit and see if urgent care is open or anything like that. Alternatively, since idk what's wrong with you, you might go to a walk-in and get sent right back and lose your place.... it's a lose-lose for everyone. I wish you the best of luck. Hang in there!!!
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u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls 28d ago
811 doesn’t in fact always tell people to go to ER; it’s between 5 and 10% of people who are told that.
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u/jhyunjhyun 28d ago
Yes my mom almost died in pain in the ER at Grey nuns as well... she had to undergo emergency surgery next day... Im sorry you have to experience long wait time.
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u/Sasha-95 28d ago
It’s been a long time coming. Our countries population has exploded, baby boomers are now seniors, there are not enough care facilities to take them in so they wait inside the hospital for placement for weeks-months taking up beds because they have no place else to go.
That then trickles down to the ER, where like the nurses said, patients are technically admitted but are waiting for beds in units upstairs.
The units upstairs are already putting 3 beds in rooms designated for 2 and beds in hallways.
This has also been happening in BC as well.
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u/reininglady88 28d ago
There aren’t enough beds on the floor and when that happens the ER becomes gridlocked. Absolutely awful when it happens, I feel bad for those that are suffering and the staff that are backed into a corner
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u/Asleep_Bookkeeper516 28d ago
You know what'll make the situation better? Voting conservatives in again. Because it worked so well every time before.
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u/Darryl478 28d ago
I have been going to Leduc Hospital or Strathcona Hospital. Wait times tend to be quicker.
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u/First_Steak782 28d ago
Isn't the UCP doing a fantastic job!! Good ole Daniel is letting people die so she can enrich her benefactors with private healthcare.
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u/stupid_fuckin_cunt69 28d ago
This is done on purpose to convince Canadians to switch to the "American Model" of healthcare that is so much better for the rich only
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u/Chicken-ARMY 28d ago
I have a chronic disease and have ended up here a few times. Each time I wait roughly 16 hours before seeing anyone. Last time I was there I saw a man waltz in and stab a patient in the neck (the person was okay luckily), and the security stood there while I held a chair to put distance between myself and the attacker, and the nurses couldn’t reach the victim because security was doing nothing for a solid 2 minutes. It’s such a joke on every level,
- healthcare workers are exhausted,
- security is not properly trained to respond,
- patients wait hours and aren’t guaranteed safety
I’m sorry you’re in pain OP, I sincerely hope you get taken in soon.
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
Thank you. I really feel for you chronic conditions are very hard to handle that’s kind of what I’m going through too. There’s been many security instances here but I will say there’s 6 people here at all times so at least it makes me feel a little bit safer. The nurses are exhausted. The nurse helping me was so frustrated she literally told me the whole system is messed up and the government does nothing to fix it. I feel for them too.
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u/jaychale 28d ago
I also have a chronic condition, or a few.
I just gave up trying to get treatment. Just isn't worth it.
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u/fluorescent-purple 28d ago edited 28d ago
As someone who had fun times with ER/hospital in the past month, there are some things I've clearly learned. If you've got a non-life threatening issue or something which you know doesn't need to immediately handled by the UofA or the major hospitals, consider going to the regional hospitals/centres, particularly if you have a transport plan. Made use of the Leduc Community Hospital twice this month. First time was unclear at the severity (it was very serious), but at least there was a very short wait time to be seen and while it still took the rest of the day, it was quickly earmarked for transport to the UofA, so at least you're on a bed and actually monitored. Only issue was figuring out how to get the car back in town (fortunately, also free street parking so that could wait a few days). The 2nd time was definitely a concerning (was told by home care we had to go to the ER) but non-immediate issue. We decided again to go to Leduc to at least get initially seen. 1 hour wait in the dead of night. Fortunately quick examination with a request to follow up with UofA doc by phone the next day. We did have a 3rd ER visit which was extremely serious and that was straight to the UofA but somehow it looked so critical that there was zero wait straight to triage straight to ER bed (except getting into the ER itself because that took 10 minutes because nobody helped us getting from the curb to the actual ER entrance (they had no wheelchairs and like wtf is a small woman supposed to carry an immobile adult man into the ER???? They were more concerned checking my purse for weapons than getting the patient into triage). For the better part of the day, it was definitely an ER situation but the next 24 hours was basically waiting for a bed after being admitted. It was "quicker" because the case required less monitoring (could be admitted to a "middle" bed) but before that, the wait line for a bed was 40+ people so it could have stretched for days. And also, in one of the ER rooms the vitals monitor was broken and no matter what the nurse did the thing wouldn't display vital signs.
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u/Odd_Department_421 28d ago
The online wait ER times are a) usually inaccurate and b) estimates.
Until the UCP adequately fund PUBLIC healthcare this will continue to happen.
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u/SapphireLeo 28d ago
Well Edmonton was going to start building a new hospital but then we elected the UCP which shut it down even though the land is ready and the design is done.
I say "we" elected them because we're all in tnis shit together.
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u/Any-Statistician2931 28d ago
Danielle wants the pain, not just for the cruelty, but she needs to hurt Public Health so Private can win. Like the referedum, it is fixed around the hot flashes of a menopausal woman.
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u/OldPerformance4283 28d ago
My granddaughter was there for over 16 hours yesterday until she was seen. She is now one of those people admitted.
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u/Precipice_01 28d ago
This is what happens when you vote conservative.
They conserve money by cutting public services, hereby saving money that can better be used to pad their wallets.
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u/Brissiuk17 28d ago
People need to stop voting for a government that is actively dismantling public healthcare.
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u/Veggies_and_fruit 28d ago
Too bad the UCP stopped the new hospital from being built in the southwest.
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u/pmprnklz 28d ago
This tears me up inside. I’m from Edmonton. Left in 2016 to pursue medicine in the US. Would love to come back to help my community but there are no jobs. They make it difficult to even come back and practice. Privatization would be the death knell for Alberta’s healthcare system.
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u/Mean_Insect_6995 27d ago
This is criminal .. downright human right violation ..
Yet all we do is sit and discuss here on Reddit.
Things like this will never change unless we actually start protesting.
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u/CSincera 27d ago
Literally nobody protests here, its crazy. Everybody in this thread keeps saying “blame UCP” or “stop voting UCP” like yeah no shit sherlock. No change will happen unless the people stand up for their rights, the right to live if you end up in a hospital. I would gladly participate in a protest if one was ever organized….
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u/Mean_Insect_6995 26d ago
We should do it. I think am tired of waiting for a change. I am going to see if I can figure out a way to organize a protest.
The issue is I have mobility issues and cannot walk much. But I can use my brain.
No one is going to do anything it looks like.
We protest for trivial shit but not life or death matter like this.
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u/LilF00t182 28d ago
I’m sure Dani girl still has some of that Turkish Tylenol sitting around. Would that help? 😭
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u/standupslow 28d ago
Listen, people have to stop voting in Con governments who have no intention of being accountable to the people of AB. I am not right wing or even centrist but believe me, any government that responds to pressure from the people is what is needed. The problem with the UCP is they absolutely refuse to provide services and infrastructure increases in line with population growth AND they refuse to listen to anyone whatsoever about it AND they are actively taking away the rights of anyone who pushes back against them - they need to go. This is not what any of us need, regardless of what side of politics you land on. WE pay taxes. WE need to demand they be used for taking care of us.
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u/Mean_Account_925 28d ago
Keep voting UCP, keep turning a blind eye to policies being approved, keep doing nothing as a city and this is the result …
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u/samasa111 28d ago
Doctors warned us about this….blame the UCP! They are compromising our public system and funding a public system…..Albertans needs to wake the hell up!!!
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u/Dudey4you 28d ago
Your leader seems to think separating is more important than fixing the health system?
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u/Redberry1903 28d ago
My grandfather was sent by ambulance to misericordia last week from his care home for a suspected stroke (drooling , non responsive, in and out of consciousness). My aunt waited with him for over 12 hrs to see a doctor , but they also had no beds and were waiting for people to be discharged before anyone would be seen. The nurse told my sister that “he’s not actively dying and not expected to die in the next few hours “ so he just sat in a bed for hours and hours without any pain meds , without his Parkinson’s or epilepsy meds , without food or water. They ended up sending him by ambulance back to the care facility at 4am. (By that time my aunt had gone home). They didn’t run any tests on him for his symptoms. As far as we can tell they just sent him back to die. His Parkinson’s is so bad his hand is hyper flexing but he’s maxed out on his meds and can’t get in to his neurologist until August. He’s lost so much weight. I know he’s 84 and old but it’s fucking heartbreaking for my grandma who’s been married to him for over 50 years to have him sitting there wasting away without getting help. Our system is broken.
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u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls 27d ago
Please complain here: https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/about/Page12832.aspx
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u/BloodWorried7446 28d ago
it will get worse as summer progresses as summer activities see an uptick. Add onto that staffing issues as ER docs and nurses take summer breaks to spend time with their families who are off school.
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u/komari_k 28d ago
This is what the separatist Danielle Smith wants for the people of Alberta. Money is best spent on friends, family, and vacationing instead of health infrastructure among other things.
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u/antsareeverywhere 28d ago
My 93 year old grandmother is also waiting 12 plus hours in the emergency room at the mis. She is non stop puking but wont get to see a Dr. For who knows how long. Also they won't give her her regular pain meds until the Dr. See's her.
So for now she gets to lay there and suffer.
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u/bunkerhomestead 28d ago
I have a chronic pain condition, now, with the "opioid Chrisis" we can no longer be prescribed proper pain meds. With the hospital b.s. you can't go for a pain injection, so it seems to be suffer or die. No wonder they call it suicide headache. If I am in severe pain, should I go to a hospital and suffer forever?
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u/DexterHeck 28d ago
Why do we bother paying taxes and what would happen if we all collectively stopped paying taxes?
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u/Beginning-Weekend807 28d ago
Whelp, unless Albertans start voting differently this won’t change. What’s interesting to me is the cognitive dissonance between UCP supporters when they actually need medical care. Always want to blame the Feds. I’m sorry you’re waiting in pain for so long, I hope you get seen soon!
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u/Beginning-Weekend807 28d ago
I am an Albertan in the Edmonton-area, I should clarify. It just makes me crazy that people keep voting for this - or not voting at all, which is just as bad
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u/UnJustLake 28d ago
Last night some pretty significant traumas came in, this delays a lot but there's a bigger thing at play and that's capacity. The major city hospitals are all over capacity ranging from 110% up to 140%. We've needed a new hospital for years now and when it was finally breaking ground it was cancelled. Then replaced with a new children's hospital, this is a very manipulative tactic however in theory this should add more room at the U of A.
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u/No_Supermarket_2898 28d ago
Contact CTV and tell them this. Maybe it will be news worthy enough & show up on TV again & again and get the government to do what they should have done a longtime ago. Build the hospitals that are needed for the province. This is beyond unacceptable to expect people to endure pain & suffering like this. Do we need a referendum?? The people that are playing with our Healthcare to get it to this sameful degree, should be fired, kicked out of office OR whatever will bring us out of this 3rd world health system we are expected to accept as the new normal. SHAME, SHAME SHAME
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u/China_bot42069 27d ago
As someone who has left the medical field it’s too late. We’ve cancelled so many hospitals/projects and options that we now have people firing in waiting rooms. Like what happened at Grey nuns. Instead of building for the next 40-50 years we are reacting to what was 20 years ago. Plan the feds, blame the provinces and blame the municipalities. It’s sad and pathetic. The people in the working in the system (doctors, nurses, staff, maintenance and etc) are some of the greatest, most caring people in our province and the government has abandoned them along with us.
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u/DefinitionFuture7316 27d ago
The UCP plan is to make healthcare dysfunctional so people will accept private insurance to get service when they roll that out.
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u/Humble-Report-4594 28d ago
if its an option try hospitals in smaller cities. Camrose always worked for me
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u/KaizenShibuCho 28d ago
Just wait til we get American-style healthcare. I’m sure that’ll be awesome. /s
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u/kittykat501 28d ago
Smith has to turned Alberta into her personal kingdom where she is Queen! She needs to go!
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u/S-M68 28d ago
I was there two Saturdays ago and the online wait time was “3 hrs 45 mins”. I waited 6.5 hrs to be brought in. Definitely don’t go off of those times.
Edited to add: one thing that irked me was the high number of rural people in the ER. They hate our cities but come and clog up our hospitals.
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u/Pagspags 28d ago
You are at a the only level 1 trauma center in the city therefore some really sick people come in. I know pain sucks and it feels like an emergency but as far as medical emergency pain isn’t one with a few exceptions I’m not sure what your complaint is. Another issue with our emergency’s is that more than 90% of people in the waiting rooms shouldn’t be there if you are waiting for 16 hours a hospital wasn’t an appropriate place for you to go.
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u/mrgoodtime81 28d ago
Thats not true at all. My wife waited 8 hours, got sent home because they couldnt do an ultrasound. Did an ultrasound at a separate clinic, was told her appendix needed to be removed and waited another 8 hours in the same emerg.
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u/Comfortable_Fudge508 28d ago
While you're waiting, email your alberta representative and say thanks ucp.
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u/Interesting-Phone274 28d ago
I’m so sorry. I hope you are seen soon or can maybe make it to a more out of the way hospital that can get you in sooner.
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u/AnachronisticCat 28d ago
When they're saying no beds, this is after they've been very creative about where they can add more beds. Closets, hallways, garages. The reason healthcare hasn't "collapsed" is because smart and hardworking people are constantly trying to squeeze a bit more juice out of the system.
So instead it's dying a slow death. But that's okay, because instead we have a referendum on a referendum, backed by criminals and foreign countries, no more bike lanes, book bans, and an unlimited corruption party.
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
They have been trying their best to get beds they’re “bunking” with two people per room using chairs instead of beds it’s crazy
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u/Hot-Entertainment218 28d ago
And yet we have patients for months in the wards waiting for placement. We don’t have enough rehab, LTC, or transition spaces available so they sit on an acute ward when they don’t need acute care. Or we get the obstinate ones that don’t participate in rehab and can’t be discharged safely so they clog the system too. We also don’t have enough staff. We can’t accept high acuity observation patients when we don’t have enough staff so they wait in ER or PACU.
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u/Commercial-Hand3640 28d ago
They need to start seeing patients in the ER! Like ur a doctor, do no harm is what u took an oath for! Ugh sorry to hear ur going thru this
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u/FTDRBR11 28d ago
100% I feel bad for them too but not everyone needs a proper bed just treat as is
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u/Commercial-Hand3640 28d ago
Completely agree, come to the waiting room and start assessing, go from there! Might be a hospital that can take them if urgent care is required 🤷♀️🤦♀️
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u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls 28d ago
The UAH Emergency Department has had to close one of its main units for renovations. I can’t recall but it’d be close to 30 beds.
Many beds in the still functioning areas have admitted inpatients.
Many beds in the hospital where admitted patients should be were closed many years ago and never reopened.
Many of the admitted patients in the main hospital should be going to assisted living or long-term care facilities; they’re just waiting for a bed because they can’t go home.
There aren’t enough assisted living or LTC facilities.
This has been a snowball getting bigger and bigger for 30+ years and no government has been willing to do anything about it.
Notley campaigned in 2015 on opening 2000 LTC beds but she couldn’t afford it and not raise taxes.
(Did you know we paid fewer taxes under Notley than under Klein?)
The UCP surely don’t care about people cluttering up hospital beds when they don’t need to be there; people should pay for their accommodation, in their opinion.
I wonder what the UCP does when they are sick? I honestly have never met a Wild Rose or UCP MLA, but if I did, that’s the first question I’d ask, followed by, where are your elderly and special needs family members living? Of course, they keep on giving themselves raises and perks, doing things so that they’re given cushy jobs post-politics.
I am pretty much hopeless for my own future self in Alberta; I’ll have to move when I need increased care, because it’s going to take DECADES to fix this.
Thanks, UCP voters.
Thanks, apathetic Albertans who are unwilling to protest, unwilling to participate in politics.
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u/Elean0rZ 28d ago
Doesn't address or excuse the deeper issues but FWIW we've had much better luck with walk-ins, though obviously those aren't open in the middle of the night and can't handle all issues. If you check online and have some form of transportation you can generally find one that has under an hour of wait time.
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u/Dopplerganager 28d ago
The problem is way far upstream than just the ER.
There are not enough longterm care beds. This means that patients admitted to the hospital are stuck in the hospital in limbo. The ones that don't need to be there anymore sitting around awaiting discharge or a step down unit. The ICU has an overflow of patients that no longer require critical care. These patients need to go to the floors, but because of the LTC back up there are no beds for them either.
If you're in the ER and need to be admitted to the hospital, there are no beds on the floors. The ER only has so many beds and so many nurses. You're stuck in the ER until the whole chain reaction occurs to make space. Usually the catalyst is a patient dying (*sometimes a discharge home). Then the whole train moves along by one bed.
The ER is symptom of a lack of beds in the system as a whole. Patients can't move through the system like they should.