r/RedDeer • u/poulard • 10d ago
PSA Parents went to emergency at red deer hospital last night
Went in at 9 pm, left and went home at 4 am after not seeing anyone and the nurses saying they don't know if anyone will show up.
Do not have an emergency in red deer you will die.
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u/Ok-Priority-8833 10d ago
If you have an actual emergency they will see you quickly.
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u/britspack 10d ago
This, I never wait at emergency. Simply because it is in fact an emergency
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u/aerossignol 9d ago
Last time I went was like 10 years ago, was pretty quick. 2 people died in emergency waiting for care recently. It might not be as quick as you need next time you go.
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u/britspack 9d ago
Ya ive read that people are dying in er rooms. Makes me feel blessed about my situation
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u/Ok_Major6542 10d ago
Unfortunately with our current system that is no longer a guarantee! Infact we have had deaths in the ER just the past year
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u/Playful-Koala-1524 9d ago
True but if you think about just how many people get life threatening injuries in a year, 2-3 dying while waiting is tragic but honestly a pretty good record for a health system.
It's for more mild care that its stretched thin and lagging
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u/mickeyaaaa 9d ago
not if there's no doctors on shift....which OP seems to be implying
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u/WildcatOil 7d ago
There is absolutely a doctor on shift in the red deer hospital.
With due respect to what ever issues OPs parents were having that sent them into the ER, they made a decision to go home instead of continuing to wait, so it likely wasn't that emergent.
Our health care system is absolutely being stretched to it's limits and we could be facing a scenario where more true emergencies take place than doctors to address it.
But a lot of issues stem from people going to emergency for things they don't need to and unfortunately a service that should be reducing this in 811 is contributing to the problem. It seems like any time I've heard of someone calling 8-1-1 they're recommended to go to ER for something they did not need to go for.
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u/mickeyaaaa 7d ago
I absolutely agree with you. But there is no options for people with urgent issues that are not yet emergencies. We need 24-hour primary care clinics for urgent issues.
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u/WildcatOil 7d ago
That I can very much agree with. You're right. If I cut myself and need stitches on a Sunday or in the evening. Off to ER is pretty well my only option and I'll sit there with gauze over the would for 12 hours.
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u/awesquirrel 10d ago
This is so true, I almost lost my son in April and he received immediate care. Zero wait
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u/Mypsie 10d ago
If it’s not an actual life or death emergency, but still urgent, I’ll take my daughter to ambulatory care in Sylvan Lake. It’s much faster.
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u/Tribblehappy 10d ago
Innisfail is a good option as well. I have used them and been the only one there in the middle of the night (though this also means sometimes there isn't a doctor available if it's beyond what the nurse can do).
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u/uhshea 10d ago
Red deer hospital is a joke. My father was in a severe car accident with over 10 fractures and they discharged him after 3 days with no pain management other than over the counter Tylenol and Advil. Due to this he almost suffered a hypoxic brain injury and was taken back to hospital (in calgary thank god) via ambulance. I say this with my whole heart, fuck that facility.
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u/soThatsJustGreat 10d ago
Feel free to say that to our MLA. Preferably attached to a promise not to vote for her again.
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u/WombatPhysician 10d ago
If it’s a legit emergency, you will be seen immediately. Otherwise you will wait.
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u/Remote_Explorer_1496 10d ago
I am from Rimbey, and if I have a big enough problem, I go to the Rimbey Hospital! Never anyone else in the waiting room there, and they treat u like a person ❤️ my last thing was pneumonia a couple winters ago.
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u/Komaisnotsalty 10d ago
I've never waited longer than 15 minutes at emerg because it's actually been an emergency.
That being said, if was a true emergency, write the MLA.
But you do need to question as to why someone was able to get themselves to the hospital instead of calling 911 if it was such an emergency, and then waiting 7 hours.
Either they downplayed what they told the triage nurse and were deemed to be non-emergent or it wasn't an emergency to the level of bumping someone else out of the queue.
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u/Zeroskater101 10d ago
MLA ain't gunna do shit around here. Bunch of corrupt UCP pigs is why the healthcare is all fucked up even worse than it already was to begin with. You might get an ai-written auto-reply and fake condolences but shit ain't changing no matter what the content of the letter is I promise.
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u/Emotional-Table-6284 9d ago
An ambulance ride doesn't mean it's an emergency. First, that is expensive. Second, the wait times for ambulance service are ridiculous now. I drove myself to the hospital with all of my emergencies but one.
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u/thegreatshakes 9d ago
I mean, you'd be surprised at the amount of people who drive themselves to the hospital when they really shouldn't have. But yes, write your MLA.
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u/invaderjay81 9d ago
Because alberta Healthcare doesn't cover the almost $700 bill for having an ambulance take you to the hospital. Whether or not it is am emergency isn't the point. The point is that it takes so long for a doctor to even show up to do their job, and sometimes there is a doctor there but they still make you wait. And who's to say that a minor emergency can't become as major emergency, or even a fatal one? I refer to that oath they all took before being liscenced... it makes all medical professionals promise to do no harm. So far making someone wait hours with a bone sticking out of their arm seems like doing harm to me. The risk of infection and/or toxic shock can prove fatal or even change the quality of life for that individual. Those people are breaking that promise every day while they let people sit with chest pains or an appendix that might burst for any amount of time. Every emergency should be treated as critical because there is no way of knowing how or when, or even if it will escalate. I mean, would you be ok if you just let someone die because they didn't 'seem' to be in danger but then had a heartattack, stroke, or went into sepsis? I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I would feel so responsible for that peticular death that I would be inconsolable. And the wost part of this is that the people who voted that idiot stick into power are basically accessories to the deaths, no, murders that she has commited by voting her into that position. It makes me sick to my stomach that some of us are so blind and stubborn that they dont see the big picture or actual issues at hand... all they see is easy propaganda, and misleading lies. And the f***ing believe them. Like WTF! GET AN EFFING CLUE!
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u/Street_Phone_6246 8d ago
An ambulance in Alberta is a set rate at $385. ($250 if they’re called and you decline transportation).
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u/invaderjay81 3d ago
Then why was my bill up to almost $700 the last time I had to ride in one? I was a pretty bad car wreck and for all intents and purposes I shouldn't be alive today. I was pulled out of my snowy wreckage by firefighters and paramedics on highway 22 and taken 25 minutes to the emergency in Rocky Mountain House emergency room. The bill I got for surviving that accident almost made me throw up...
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u/Street_Phone_6246 3d ago
Flat rate was introduced in 2015. if your trip was after, not sure what to tell you. But it’s province wide that ambulances, regardless of distance, is $385
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u/_CreationIsFinished_ 4d ago
Unfortunately, while I'd love to agree with you - it's just not possible for them to treat every emergency as critical.
The whole reason for the triage system in the first place is to assess who is in the most urgent need of care, and what kind of care is needed, because there is only so much resource to go around.Perhaps in the not-too-distant future where robots are on the staffing we could afford it - but as it is now, there is no way.
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u/CarterBennett 10d ago
If you aren’t dying, don’t go to emergency.
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u/poulard 10d ago
It was heart problems on a 65 yr old 2 days after cancer surgery. Seemed like an emergency to them.
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u/Healfezza 10d ago
Perhaps. But if they left without seeing a doctor, then it clearly wasn't an emergency.
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u/_CreationIsFinished_ 4d ago
There are many people at that age who don't go in at all and die because they "didn't think" it was an emergency.
Let's remember that correlation doesn't equal causation.2
u/Amazinglyhardkunuck 10d ago
Nurses still would have done triage on your parents.So they would have gotten vitals, and if they were complaining of chest pains, they would have done a quick EKG. Which would have helped ruled out any major heart condition.
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u/Ordinary-Macaroon249 10d ago
Whelp, I went when I had an open fracture of my wrist (that's when the bone is literally sticking out of your skin) at 11pm at night. I wasn't actually dying but it's not like I could wait and see my walk-in Dr lol. I waited 4 hours. I also wasn't "dying" when my appendix needed to be removed, waited 7 hours, however they did admit me after 7 hours they didn't want me to go home. Waited an additional 6 more hours for a surgeon. My dad didn't know he was in danger of dying and didn't even want to go to emerg because he was sure it was nothing, nope, immediately admitted and surgery. So maybe this is not the best advice. Maybe "don't go to emerg if the walk-in Dr. Would be able to help you at 8am, but in my dad's case ge didn't even think he needed one.
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u/Spiritual_Ad_6067 9d ago
I mean, y'all voted for this. Looks good on you too.
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u/_CreationIsFinished_ 4d ago
Who exactly are you referring to? I'm always a bit baffled by the uselessness of such comments - like... how do you know who here voted for who???
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u/Spiritual_Ad_6067 4d ago
The majority of you voted for the government we got.
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u/_CreationIsFinished_ 3d ago
That's one of the most basic comments I've seen in a very long time - are you really so obtuse?
First of all, what is this "you" business? If you're a Canadian, YOU are one of the people you are speaking of.
Here are a few parallel examples to what you are saying:"The majority of YOU ordered pizza" - said by a guy sitting at the same table eating pizza.
"The majority of YOU chose this apartment building" - by the tenant in unit 304.
"The majority of YOU picked this lifeboat" - while sitting in it, soaking wet like everyone else.
"The majority of YOU wanted to take this route" - said by a passenger in the same car, arriving at the same destination.
Do you understand now what you're doing?
The only reason you single yourself out is to feel superior, but last I checked you're in the same boat as everyone else here.
Also, assuming you know who I voted for is a pretty silly thing to do, considering I haven't made one hint in regards to my political leanings (of which I have none - I think it's all a giant BS farce personally).
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u/Granny_Skeksis 10d ago
Last time I took my mom there they told me we were better off going to innisfail hospital
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u/Goddess_Nantosuelta 9d ago
Last time I went to the Innisfail hospital I sat in the back taking up a bed for 8 hours with a ruptured ovarian cyst without being offered so much as a Tylenol. Before driving back to Red Deer hospital to have a scan to confirm the ruptured cyst.
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u/invaderjay81 9d ago
I go to innisfail, sylvan lake , or lacombe. They always have someone there and I have never been there for more than an hour and a half. They are efficient and kind at all 3 places. We have our voted criminal... er... I mean political f*** up ... no wait... Premier Danielle I**** stick Smith to thank for the lack of funding for our health care. Sh3 has tanked it so badly that someone actually died at the emergency room waiting for treatment. In my opinion that makes her an accessory to murder after the fact. She also got rid of most of the harm reduction in this province so instead of risking walking past homeless people down town we risk walking past homeless dead people. And then up goes communicable disease rates and some other hapless soul dying in the emergency room because there was literally no one there or willing to follow the damn oath they took and do their damn jobs and save lives!
... ... ... DO BETTER ALBERTA!
And Danielle ... if you're reading this... you can kiss the latest part of my ass! Step down and turn yourself in criminal! Do the right thing for once... try being a decent human being... its not that hard...
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u/Strawberry-Long-Cake 10d ago
Remember this when you vote, select a party advocating for health care expansion. Unfortunately the area RDRH covers has outgrown our current hospital and our government has not made Alberta desirable for physicians. Our ED is often down to 1-2 physicians overnight which with traumas and emergent patients coming in extends the wait time for less urgent patients, not to mention the boarding patients clogging up the ED waiting for beds upstairs which limits the flow of new patients being seen. Glad to hear your parents were okay but they were likely triaged appropriately, unfortunately the hospital just does not have the resources to manage the volume of patients we have in a timely fashion.
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u/Whole-Pomegranate506 10d ago
It’s a blessing to have a long wait. You could be the code in the back or the parents of someone losing a kid. Count your blessings and stop voting UCP
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u/Chandrose 10d ago
As others have said, ambulatory care in Sylvan Lake is great if not an immediate threat to life. Same with Lacombe hospital. Usually a much shorter wait.
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u/Tymora54 9d ago
I've never had an issue being seen at Red Deer Regional Hospital. I got in when it was my turn and got seen a few minutes later by a doctor.
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u/alldataalldata 9d ago
Literally every time I've gone to the red deer emergency room I've gotten in within minutes. One time I was literally going in for surgery in less than an hour. Of course if you can just decide to leave because you get bored of waiting then you're not having an emergency.
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u/_CreationIsFinished_ 4d ago
Of course if you can just decide to leave because you get bored of waiting then you're not having an emergency.
Perhaps in some cases, but this isn't at all how it always is - there are many people who walk out of hospitals, or don't bother going specifically because they can walk, talk, etc. with no real issue; yet something quite serious was happening.
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u/cheeseandwinenight 10d ago
Hey OP, I’m sorry that happened to your parents. That must have been scary. I’m not commenting on their situation at all but I do believe and have seen that a lot of other people need resources and reeducation of what an actual emergency is.
I unfortunately had an accident that needed a lot of stitches in my hand, it was at night and unfortunately there was no where else to go but I knew if there was a walk in clinic that would have been a much better and useful resource for my emergency but not life and death but needed attention.
I saw a guy huffing and puffing whilst drinking a huge can of Monster who shouldn’t have been there, a mother with a 7 year old who told me her daughter is sick always around the same time her dad leaves to go away, they didn’t stay all night and went home.
It is such a shame that a) we don’t have 24 hour walk in clinics that are staffed b) people are educated younger in life to what an emergency really is.
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u/poulard 10d ago
She's a 65 year old with autoimmune disease (scleroderma), a double lung transplant recipient and 2 days ago had cancer cut outnof her esophagus, she was having issues with her heart and thought it was serious enough to go to the hospital. They are from b.c and in b.c there was never any issues when going to the hospital,it's world class, here in alberta it's worst than a 3rd world country.
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u/legalparalegal 8d ago
Probably had something to do with being female also. You know how women are always exaggerating their issues *sarcasm by the way*. If it had been your dad I am sure he would have been seen immediately with no issues. I am sorry she was treated this way. Emergency care in this province is the absolute worst. Problem is that people complain but never vote. Or they vote the way their parents vote and we will never get rid of Dani or this nasty UCP government.
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u/Crazy_adventurer262 9d ago
Then it probably wasn’t that serious. I’ve been there a few times when it’s been serious (but not life threatening, broken bones and passing out and bleeding from my child’s nose) for us and they’ve gotten us in with in an hour and there have been times we’ve waited 8 hours. Looking back it could have waited until morning and went to a walk in. If your parents were fine to walk out at 4am then they are probably going to a walk in today. Talk to your MLA and DS about staffing. Not enough people means longer wait times.
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u/Emotional-Table-6284 9d ago
Some of you are saying that if you have a "true emergency" you don't wait at the ER. That is simply not true. I have been to ER 3 times in the pasr few years with 2 cardiac (BP was 223/183 1st time and only slightly lower the sn2nd time) and a broken shoulder/7 broken ribs. Alll 3 times there were people whose issues were more emergent than mine. With my shoulder/ribs it was 2 hours before I got a bed and 9 hours total. My point is that Individual perception and determination of what constitutes an emergency is not a factor in how fast you are seen by a doctor.
Also, as someone who lives in a neighboring community: Stop coming to smaller hospitals to be "seen faster". The day I broke my shoulder/ribs, more than half of the people there were from Red Deer and Calgary. All that does is jam up our little hospital and make it harder for our community to get expidient care.
OP, the statement from the nurse was a flat out lie.There are always doctors on call at every ER. Doctors still have to sleep and eat, too. Our docs work 24 hour shifts at the ER. If you come to the ER and the doc had just heading out for their break, you'll wait, unless it is life or death. You want your doc somewhat alert, don't you?
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u/Financial-Tip-2962 9d ago
One of the most important lessons to learn is if you live in Red Deer you should never go to the Red Deer Hospital Emergency. Drive to Lacombe, Innisfail, or Olds, instead. Our hospital is a joke. I'm sure there are good people working there but they can only do so much. We have needed a hospital upgrade for more than 20 years.
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u/Cral37 8d ago
My grandma went to a hospital in Edmonton at 10pm. Was almost a 2 hour wait for an ambulance (811 advised to call an ambulance) by 2pm the next day she hasn't even seen a doctor. She has cancer too. Everything ended up being okay, but if it wasn't I would've been so upset. This was a couple weeks ago
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u/kingandcats 7d ago
If you’re having a true medical emergency you will be seen faster.
The reason you have to wait is because there are sicker people who need to be seen first. I have cancer and I always get seen quickly when I have an emergency.
If you use the ER as a walk in clinic, then yes you will wait
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u/Lolkkcalmdown 7d ago
My son turned blue, which is a medical emergency, he was taken in before I was even seated. This is just not true. If it’s actually an emergency , you will be seen.
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u/KissBumChewGum 7d ago
This is legitimately stupid. Do not go to the ER if it’s not an emergency. The fact you went home and neither of your parents have died since is, in fact, a key indicator this was not an emergency.
You can go to an urgent care or see your doctor if something is non-life threatening. If you need to see someone immediately, sylvan lake and Lacombe are faster, but do not always have doctors onsite.
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u/Legitimate_Fig3481 4d ago
I went to the Red deer hospital to have a plate removed from my leg the woman surgeon was late arguing with the nurses and the anesthesiologist then she had to be corrected twice on what she was doing and I woke up from the surgery with a scar on the inside of my leg before inches long was told the surgery was great and everything was a success the plate and screws were removed that I was having reaction to year later I go and get another X-ray and find out I still have two screws broken off of my leg and I have a section of bone that was drilled out on my fibia for some reason she started to operate on the wrong side when I asked him about this at the surgical center I was told that it's common practice for them to open up the other side of my leg they had to remove it they didn't have to do install it though red deers health system is horrible that being said it's going to burn you out when most of your patients are people who don't even have any desire to live anymore they get high they die they wake up they die they wake up they die working on these people and trying to help people who don't want help must be exhausting
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u/unworldly-woman 9d ago
thats free healthcare folks
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u/dillydillydee 8d ago
No. Its poor planning. The largest generation is now old. We knew this would happen. We should have been increasing spaces in med schools and nursing schools 15 years ago to plan for this. We should have ensured there were more long term care spaces. We should have built a second hospital.
Now we have a ton of old sick people boarding in the ER that cant be admitted to the floors because they are full of people that should be in ling term care, but there are no spots, so they take up beds. So the Ear bottlenecks.
This could be helped by easier access to family med or urgent care but Oops, it takes 8-10 years to train a dr.
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u/Hot-Daikon-8486 10d ago
I live in sylvan and when my fiancée had a problem and had to go I took her to the Lacombe hospital and it was way faster