'Perfect storm' has Albertans waiting long hours in backlogged hospital emergency rooms
CBC
Zolton Yaremie is weary after an exhausting ordeal at the emergency room with his daughter.
The family lives in Andrew, Alta., so he first took nine-year-old Hailey to the hospital in Lamont, about 30 kilometres away, when her abdominal pain became severe on Friday.
Unable to get a CT scan at in Lamont, Yaremie and Hailey were told to go to the emergency department at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital — a 70-kilometre drive away.
The pair arrived around 1:30 p.m. "By the time we actually got in and sat in a bed, I think it was just after 10 p.m.," Yaremie said.
On Monday, the little girl still wasn't feeling better. So they returned to the emergency room for another eight-hour wait.
"I think the most frustrating thing for me was seeing my daughter in the state that she was and not being able to do anything about it," Yaremie said.
"Anyone with a kid — you want to take their pain away and take it for yourself," he said. "I would sit there for how many hours it took if I could take it away from her."
Yaremie is one of many Albertans who have been waiting hours upon hours in the province's emergency departments.
Wait times can vary by hospital and depend on the time of day, but can sometimes range from two hours to 17 hours.
Nazeem Muhajarine, an epidemiologist with the University of Saskatchewan, said some hospital pressure is the result of COVID-19 patients but there are other factors.
He said some are patients who postponed care during the pandemic and others who generally need care and, on top of that, we are now moving into the flu and cold season.
"It's like a perfect storm where the demand hasn't dissipated for care," Muhajarine said.
"On the supply side, there's real gaps and deficits that are presenting with supply."
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