Alberta patients experience ‘very long’ wait times for care in emergency departments: AMA survey
Global News
A survey released Friday by the Alberta Medical Association takes a closer look at how patients feel about the state of emergency care in the province.
A survey released Friday by the Alberta Medical Association takes a closer look at how patients feel about the state of emergency care in the province.
The patient survey was conducted in June and shows 84 per cent of respondents believe wait times in Alberta emergency departments are “fairly” or “very” long. Most people reported waiting up to five hours for care, roughly 40 per cent said they waited two hours or less, and 15 per cent reported waiting over six hours.
Of those who took the survey, 71 per cent said they believe timeliness of care in Alberta emergency departments has declined in the past four years.
Nearly half — 49 per cent — believe the quality of care in emergency departments has declined over the past four years.
Dr. Paul Parks, the president of the section of emergency medicine for the AMA, said the conditions are “extremely demoralizing.”
“None of us that go into health care want to see people suffer and not be able to help them or have them have very, very long waits,” he said.
“It’s very, very difficult and it just seems to be getting worse and worse. And there’s no question that that is a factor that is driving away a lot of our nurses and allied health-care workers and making staffing even harder.”
The survey showed 46 per cent of patients went to an emergency department for care because they had no other options available to them. For example, it was after hours or a family doctor/walk-in clinic was not available.
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