Emergency room doctors pen letter outlining health-care crisis in Alberta
CTV
A group of Alberta emergency room doctors have written an open letter, highlighting their concerns about the state of the province's health-care system.
Up to 15 hours waiting to see a doctor.
Forty or more people in the ER waiting room.
Elderly patients waiting on stretchers in hallways.
Sections closed because there aren’t enough staff.
These are some of the issues being called out by a group of 190 physicians who released an open letter Wednesday, calling on the province for immediate help.
The letter goes on to say the problem has three underlying causes: a lack of access to family doctors; a lack of hospital beds; and health-care labour shortages.
The doctors say as many as 650,000 Albertans are without a family doctor and relief seems unlikely – saying 42 residency training spaces in family medicine were unfilled last year.
