New warning about ER wait times
Posted Oct 21, 2011 8:23 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The doctor who sounded the alarm about a potential catastrophic collapse in provincial emergency wards last fall is speaking out again.
Dr. Paul Parks tells The Calgary Herald the number of sick patients stuck in emergency rooms in both Calgary and Edmonton is on the rise because there are no beds available.
Alberta Health Services has set a target of admitting seriously ill patients within eight hours after they show up at a hospital.
David Eggen with Friends with Medicare tells 660News, the big problem is a shortage of long term care facilities, with people waiting to be moved tying up hospital beds that could be used for acute care.
Eggen says lengthy ER wait times are not a new problem in Alberta, and the jury is still out on whether new Premier Alison Redford and her Health Minister will do a better job than their predecessors.
He says he’s actually a little worried, because Redford says she would like to see the private sector build more senior care centres, adding privatization is not what Albertans want.
