Alberta ER waits times lead to patients walking out before receiving care

For people in Edmonton or Calgary, getting quick care in emergency rooms is unlikely for most cases, and it's leading to patients leaving before a doctor can see them. Sarah Komadina has more on the push to fix the problem.Long waits in Alberta emergency rooms have been an issue for years and now there’s concern it’s deterring patients from sticking around to get the care they need.

“Every fall we’re really bad and this year we’re as bad as ever,” said Dr. Arun Abbi, an emergency medicine physician at the Peter Lougheed and Foothills hospitals in Calgary. The lack of primary care in Alberta is so bad, Abbi said, ER doctors are diagnosing serious illnesses like cancer and seeing older patients with complex medical needs. Mental health is also a serious issue.

Edmonton resident William Anderson is living with a brain injury. Last month, he suddenly passed out while swimming at the Jamie Platz YMCA in west Edmonton and was rushed the University of Alberta Hospital in an ambulance. But once there, he said the rush slowed to a crawl.“They just left me (hooked) to the machine, while the machine tracked my and my heartbeat and they weren’t really communicating very well,” he said.

“Emergency should be moving faster than what they are, but they’re understaffed and we need to get that fixed,” he said.“We’re just so busy that sometimes we are falling behind — but it’s not that we’re not trying to help. We’re trying to see everyone.Click to share quote on Twitter: "We want to see everybody we can. We just have limited resources."

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