
"All patients are triaged on arrival at the emergency department and are prioritized depending on the urgency of their condition or injury. Critically ill or injured patients will always be seen immediately," said Williamson. The wait on Monday afternoon was five hours and 33 minutes. Wait-times generally improve significantly when the day shift begins," he said, noting the estimated waits dropped to 2.5 hours by 7:30 a.m. "Wait-times are a snapshot in time, fluctuate throughout the day, and can be longer in the early morning when staffing levels are lower.
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"Capacity has become increasingly challenged in recent days, despite efforts to free up bed spaces, and this is resulting in some long waits in the ED at times, particularly for less-urgent patients," spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in a statement.īut Williamson said no patients would have actually waited for 18 hours over the weekend. We need our outpatient clinics enhanced to be able to deal with patients who are discharged from hospital a little bit earlier."Īlberta Health Services said the Red Deer Hospital is dealing with increasing patient volumes and patients who are sicker. "And for those patients that we have in hospital we need services to get them out of hospital. "It goes beyond staffing.We do not have enough physical space, " he said.

Kym Jim, said wait times are surging despite efforts to relieve the pressure by shipping patients to smaller hospitals in the zone. Red Deer internal medicine specialist, Dr. "Nurses are having a hard time providing the care that Albertans need or require," said Beatson, president of the local chapter of the United Nurses of Alberta. Sue Beatson, a registered nurse at the Red Deer hospital, said her colleagues are so concerned about patient safety, they can sometimes be found crying in the break room. But construction, which has yet to begin, is not expected to be complete until 2030-2031. The beleaguered Red Deer hospital - which has struggled with bed shortages for years - is slated for a $1.8 billion expansion. "The longer patients are kept in the waiting room and the longer emergency in patients are trapped in an emergency department, not getting into the hospital, they suffer worse outcomes," he said. Gash is not aware of any patients who actually waited 18 hours over the weekend, but he said the facility is running at up to 120 per cent capacity and staff have a constant feeling of dread.

3, the hospital's posted waits exceeded ten hours on four different occasions, according to the the Alberta Health Services' emergency department wait times website.ĮR wait times at Red Deer Regional Hospital

In addition, worsening staffing shortages are leading to ER bed closures and there are backlogs of admitted patients waiting, often for days, to be moved upstairs.īetween Sept. "Our system is struggling tremendously with emergency department overcrowding and access block for patients."Īccording to Gash, patients are very sick. Timothy Gash, an ER physician who was working over the weekend. The posted wait time spiked over the weekend, topping out at nearly 18 hours during the early morning hours on Sunday. It regularly operates over 100 per cent capacity (Heather Marcoux/CBC - image credit)įrontline health care workers are renewing their pleas for help as emergency room wait times at the Red Deer Regional Hospital continue to balloon, hitting what doctors are calling "unprecedented" highs.

The Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre serves nearly half a million people in Central Alberta.
