The Alberta Medical Association says another patient has died while waiting for care at a hospital, as the province’s health agency investigates the case.
AMA President Dr. Brian Wirzba says the man arrived at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital on May 8 and died several hours later.
“He received some initial therapy in the emergency room but because there were no stretcher spaces inside the emergency department, he was left in waiting room, this is another tragic event … We extend our condolences to the patient’s family and loved ones. And, you know, these things are never easy for front-line staff … There’s a significant moral distress that comes from working in that environment on a regular basis.”
Alberta Health Services says it is investigating and it can’t release further details due to privacy reasons.
The man is among several patients who’ve died while waiting for care across Alberta’s hospitals in recent months.
Late last year, Prashant Sreekumar, who was 44, died at Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital after waiting nearly eight hours.
Then earlier this year, Dr. Paul Parks, president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association’s section of emergency medicine, sent a letter to Alberta’s government detailing examples of another six deaths in hospitals over the span of two weeks in January. The letter also listed 30 cases that nearly ended in a death.
The letter pinned most of the deaths — and what doctors call “near misses” — to the fact that Alberta’s hospitals are clogged.
Alberta’s government ordered a judge-led inquiry into Sreekumar’s death in January, and also announced it was creating a program in which physicians would help triage patients.
Wirzba said the triage program, which would operate across six to eight major hospitals in Alberta, is still not in place.
He said he expects the AMA and the government to come to a resolution in June. Then a call-out for physicians who can make time in their busy schedules to sign on to the program will be issued.
“This entire process has taken far longer than we anticipated,” Wirzba said.
And it is also one of several resolutions needed, he added, to solve the problem of overcrowded Alberta hospitals.
“The emergency departments are under significant pressure,” he said.
Wirzba said the latest death shouldn’t deter Albertans from going to the ER.
“Despite these tragic events, the vast majority of patients get care.”
Comments