Emergency rooms are struggling to keep up with a rapid influx of patients, leading to long wait times — but there are many possible solutions that could be implemented during the restructuring of AHS.

This issue has an impact on Albertans, who are spending large periods of time waiting for emergency care, such as Martha Vargas, a Calgarian who has multiple stories of overnights at the ER.

Emergency room wait times have become a concern in the Alberta health system for patients like Vargas, with patients waiting long hours waiting for care. 

This problem is more complex than it seems. However, there are many parts at play — such as understaffing and lack of alternative resources for patients. 

According to the 2024 AHS report, wait times to see a doctor were at an average of about 6.7 hours,  an 8.3 per cent increase compared to 2023 — despite an AHS target of 4.8 hours. 

The report says this is due to many factors, such as high patient flow and high staff vacancy. 

Emergency room wait times in Calgary fluctuate greatly, but they are constantly tracked online, both on the AHS official website, as well as in this CBC article — both of which are tools that help patients decide which hospital to go to. 

Despite how difficult waiting can be for patients, there are many reasons as to why emergency rooms are often full to capacity.

Why the wait?

Danielle, a seasoned emergency room nurse, whose last name will be omitted due to fear of job loss, has worked in multiple Calgary emergency rooms over the last 26 years. She believes there are many reasons why wait times are so overwhelming.

“Most people who come into the emergency department are there because they don't have a family doctor,” said Danielle. “You usually have one nurse per three, four patients, ideally—but I know that it goes up to like six, sometimes eight.”

The large number of patients that come into these rooms leads to a shortage of not only staff, but also beds — a hard limit on how many people can be admitted into the department. 

The limited beds lead to many people being left in the waiting room for hours, monitored by the nurses until a bed opens up. 

Rebuilding the system

With the ongoing restructuring of the AHS, nurses like Danielle are hoping for change to help emergency rooms around the city. The AHS restructure states the improvement of emergency department flow as one of their main objectives in their 2024-27 health plan.

Danielle talked about making dedicated urgent care rooms as a solution for emergency departments — something like a new mental health tower in the south health campus, to reduce the flow of patients into the emergency department. 

“If you can kind of take a few of those little things and pull them out, our emergency department wait times would probably decrease a bit,” said Danielle. “Right now, there's just so much because we are honestly and truly expected to solve everyone's problems.”

Doctors, Nurses and patients are all feeling the effects of understaffing.

Alberta is facing a province-wide healthcare shortage, but nowhere is more impacted by this shortage than rural communities and their hospitals.

Of the over 100 hospitals in Alberta, 84 are hospitals and emergency centres in rural communities.

High River, Alta. 

One of the hospitals in Alberta that is facing staffing issues is High River General Hospital. 

Dr. Bea du Prey has been working as a family doctor specializing in low-risk obstetrics in High River for 10 years. She lives in Calgary, roughly 70 kilometres north of High River. The distance can present issues as hospitals require you to be 20 minutes away when on call. 

Less than 50 per cent of the doctors at du Prey’s practice live in High River, or within the 20 minute radius.  

“We decided as a group to have an apartment, and we pay for that out of our own pocket,” said du Prey. “It allows us to kind of at least have a home away from home when we have to do 24-hour call shifts.”

Du Prey’s practice only has one obstetrician-gynecologist, who is trained to handle more complex births. 

The main issue with working out of rural environments is the lack of staffing and nurses available to work labour and delivery.

“Some of our more significant issues of late have been shortages with nursing staff,” said du Prey. “We often have two labour and delivery nurses who are on but they're managing all of the labouring patients as well as the postpartum patients and any patients who come into triage.”

“You have to have one-on-one nursing care. And so we do often rely on calling in a third nurse if it's really busy on the unit, but it's getting harder and harder to secure a third nurse.”

Due to staffing shortages many rural hospitals are requesting nurses work both ER and Labour and Delivery. However, this is not something that everyone is comfortable with and has led to rural nurses relocating to the city.

Bonnyville, Alta.

From 2016 to 2019, Dayna, who has chosen to remain anonymous, worked as a labour and delivery nurse in the town of Bonnyville. 

“Alberta Health Services had a hiring freeze on when I came out of school,” said Dayna. “But Bonnyville is under Covenant Health Services.” 

Bonnyville is located 240 kilometres east of Edmonton, near Cold Lake., Alta. 

Due to its small size, the hospital lacks specialized infant care, such as a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

In some situations, NICU or PICU teams are needed. These teams, usually coming from Edmonton, can take three hours to arrive. Without specialized neonatal nurses, the nurses in Bonnyville cannot afford to take any risks. 

“You learn to be very cautious. You don't take risks because you don't have that backup system or it's going to take a long time for it to get there,” said Dayna. “If you see something that might turn out bad, we don't wait to see if it turns out bad.” 

Dayna, who is originally from Calgary, left Bonnyville in 2019 and has been working in emergency rooms in her hometown of Calgary. However, she deeply enjoyed her time in Bonnyville. 

“Had Bonnyville been closer, like maybe even within an hour and a half drive, I probably would never have left the hospital,” said Dayna. 

Pigeon Lake, Alta.

The shortage of healthcare in rural Alberta also affects those seeking healthcare. 

Troy Wilkenson lives in Pigeon Lake, located southwest of Edmonton. He has several health issues that require him to see specialists that are not available in Pigeon Lake. 

“I have to drive to Wetaskiwin, which is about 45 minutes away,” said Wilkenson. 

Before living in Pigeon Lake, Wilkenson lived in Beaumont, which is located between Edmonton and Leduc, so having access to medical professionals and specialists was easy. 

Now, Wilkenson has to book the day off work or deal with phone appointments when he needs to see a doctor, but he still considers himself one of the lucky ones. 

“I'm at least in a position of more privilege compared to some people where I can drive if I need,” said Wilkenson. “But some of the other people out here are left in the dark. If something happens they can go a long time without getting treatment.” 

What can be done?

One of the main ways to improve healthcare in rural communities is to increase the resources and healthcare professionals working in these communities. 

However, for many healthcare workers, there are not enough benefits when compared to the higher responsibilities that come with working rurally. 

“They will pay off part of your student loans if you're working rurally as a nurse,” said Dayna. “But once those are paid off or if you don't have any, there's not really a monetary incentive for working in that environment. And you do have more responsibility put on you, working with fewer resources.” 

As Alberta Health Services (AHS) looks to redraw the provincial healthcare system, the future of Albertan healthcare is foggy.

In 2023, AHS announced a change in plans for the provincial healthcare system.

Each generalized healthcare department — primary care, acute care, continuing care and recovery care — under the new plan are considered separate sectors in the healthcare field, with no overlap between one another.

“The next three years will be a time of change. We’re entering a new era of healthcare improvement for the people we serve, and for the incredible health professionals on our frontlines,” stated Dr. Lyle Oberg, board chair of AHS.

Due to the complexity of tearing a once conjoined healthcare system into independent parts, results will not be available until 2027. However, physicians from each sector have their own beliefs about how their field needs to be supported by the new system.

Primary Care 

According to a study conducted in 2023, only 14 per cent of the 5,789 doctors in Alberta are accepting new patients. 

Primary care physicians are critical to helping patients navigate the complicated nuts and bolts of the system. However, due to the current lack of family physicians, many Albertans are left to navigate the system on their own.

“Patients are having to take on that responsibility themselves, and it’s a super frustrating process,” said Bea du Prey, a primary care physician.

Du Prey mentioned the best healthcare structure Alberta has had existed nearly a decade ago.

“I think the idea of that [restructuring the healthcare system is] going to fix our system is very flawed,” said du Prey.

Acute Care 

In December of 2024, an average of five out of 10 admitted patients at the Foothills Medical Hospital in Calgary waited 11 hours in the emergency room.

“I’ve seen lots of changes. I’ve seen it go from being an emergency room and, the proper use of it, to being a walk-in clinic. We can’t keep up,” said Danielle, a seasoned emergency room nurse, whose last name has been omitted due to fear of job loss. 

After serving 26 years on the frontlines, Danielle believes more resources are needed for doctors and nurses to be able to keep up with the high demand of medical need.

“We need more walk-ins. We could use another urgent care for more simplistic things, because everybody in their head thinks their emergency is an emergency,” said Danielle.

Continuing Care 

According to the AHS health plan document, where the steps and goals of the healthcare system change are outlined, the demand for continuing care services in Alberta is on the rise.

“Continuing care services in Alberta continues to exceed the rate of expansion of community-based continuing care and home care services,” stated the AHS health plan document.

Due to the high demand for continuing care services, many emergency rooms and urgent care departments become overwhelmed with the overdraft of patients who are seeking continuing care.

The Calgary Journal reached out to the Alberta Continuing Care Association, which has a voice in the creation and structure of the continuing care sector, however, they declined to comment.

Recovery Care 

The recovery care program established in 2024 looks to give people struggling with addiction or mental health issues more personalized care than simply being bunched into emergency rooms.

Bruce Holstead, executive director of Fresh Start Recovery Centre, has worked closely with families impacted by addictions and people who struggle with mental health and addiction. Holstead feels as though the health system is finally taking steps in the right direction to support those who need mental health and addiction services. 

“I think for the first time, the governments opened up mental health and addiction,” said Holstead. 

Holstead expressed his relief that the recovery care sector will have its own ministry in deciding how mental health and addiction services will be coordinated. He said hospitals were not correctly caring for people who struggle with drug addiction and would rather push them out of their facilities.

“Because what? They’re just addicts?” said Holstead. “Go tell a mom that. Go tell someone who is burying their child that.”