Alberta’s health care problems decades in the making

Whether it's longer wait times for EMS, primary care or emergency departments, Alberta's health care problems didn't start with the pandemic.

It’s been 32 months since the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Alberta. And it’s been just shy of three years since the coronavirus was first detected in China. Some mark the pandemic as the beginning of a “collapse” in health-care systems across the western world.

But Edmonton ER physician Dr. Sandy Dong said the cracks in the system started showing decades ago.

Dong pointed to the first incident he heard of a patient who stayed overnight in an emergency department waiting room to see a doctor, also known as “boarding” a patient.

“I actually remember the day when the first patient who was admitted to hospital was boarded,” Dong said. “That happened in the 90s. So you can point to that as a start of collapse that we’re just seeing continue.

“Now some departments are operating near 100 per cent of beds. People waiting for beds upstairs and that’s a continuation of collapse.

“But I do remember my first day of noticing that and we wondered, ‘What does this mean?’ And little did we know that it’s the start of all of this.”

Often described as on the front line of the health care system for individuals, primary physicians – commonly known as family doctors – have become increasingly difficult to find.

Reports from major centres like Lethbridge have shown tens of thousands of Albertans don’t have access to a family doctor, instead having to go without.