Emergency room waits spike in Calgary as province takes steps to eliminate ER backlogs
CBC
Emergency room wait times in Calgary are surging again with several hospitals posting estimated waits hovering around 15 hours overnight on Wednesday.
According to publicly available AHS data, tracked by CBC News and updated hourly, Alberta Children's Hospital peaked at 14.5 hours and South Health Campus topped out at 14.82 hours.
Waits were long at Calgary's other hospitals, too.
"It's absolutely not OK," said Cameron Westhead, second vice-president with the United Nurses of Alberta. "We are seeing longer wait times overall and we don't see relief in sight."
Average ER wait times at Calgary hospitals have been trending up over the last month.
Reducing those waits has been a key priority for the provincial government. And the messaging leading up to the election campaign has been that these efforts are working.
At the end of April, the Health Ministry said ER waits were dropping as a result of its Health Care Action Plan.
"Patients are getting care faster at emergency departments, and Alberta is strengthening its workforce with more front-line health care workers," the press release said.
A 90-day update earlier this year also cited improvements.
In a statement provided to CBC News on Thursday, AHS said wait times fluctuate depending on factors that include seasonal illnesses and staffing levels.
Provincially, it said, waits to see an ER doctor dropped by 17 per cent, from 7.1 hours in November to 5.9 hours in March.
But for Westhead, that messaging doesn't fit with what nurses are experiencing.
"It just doesn't reflect the reality on the front line," he said.
Dr. Eddy Lang, a Calgary ER physician, said it's important to look at the situation from a big picture perspective.