1 in 5 Albertans Leave Emergency Rooms Before Receiving Care: AMA Report

The entrance to the emergency department at Peter Lougheed Hospital is seen in Calgary, Alta., in August 2023. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Nearly one in five Albertans who visited an emergency room in the past year reports leaving before receiving care, a new report says.

“A significant 18 percent of those who attended an [emergency department] in the past year reported leaving before receiving care, a sign of both the severity of wait times and the frustration experienced by patients,” says a recent report released by the Alberta Medical Association (AMA).

AMA President Shelley Duggan finds this “concerning,” as it is “more than double the national average of 8.6 percent,” she said in a July 4 statement referencing data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Additionally, another 18 percent of emergency department visitors reported being treated or kept overnight in a hallway or storage area, which the report says highlights the overcrowding issue in hospitals as well as the “strain on hospital resources.”

Moreover, the report indicates that timeliness of care is a key challenge in Alberta’s emergency departments, since 58 percent of visitors rated the timeliness of seeing a physician as “poor,” while 29 percent rated the timeliness as “very poor.”

“Eight-hour wait, then I was in the bed in the hallway and then I was there half the night, for a severe infection … health-care system is so overloaded with patients and not enough nurses or doctors,” the report quoted an Alberta patient as saying.

Although long wait times, overcrowded and uncomfortable waiting areas, and staff shortages are common challenges described in patient feedback, many patients praised emergency department staff for their “professionalism, dedication and compassion.”

Ministry’s Response

Alberta’s Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health Services acknowledged that there is more work to do to improve wait times in emergency departments, but it also said AMA’s online survey may not fully reflect Albertans’ experiences and therefore is “not a credible source of health data.”

“It’s important to note that the AMA’s online survey had a sample size of only 1,120 respondents and does not reflect the full range of patient experiences or health data across Alberta,” the ministry told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “The report does not include details about the survey respondents or how they were selected, making it unclear how representative the results are of the broader Alberta population.”

The latest quarterly data from Health Quality Alberta indicated that only two hospitals in the province reported a “left without being seen” rate of 18 percent or higher, with most hospitals reporting rates “well below that,” the ministry said.

“Delays in Alberta’s [emergency department] are shorter than in other large provinces,” the ministry said, adding that it is taking action to reduce wait times further by adding hospital beds, expanding assisted-living capacity, and investing in new urgent care centres across the province.

The ministry also said the number of family doctors is increasing in the province. At the end of March, there were 12,123 registered physicians in Alberta, which represents a growth of 491 physicians since the previous year, including a net gain of 317 family doctors.

Additionally, since 2020, there has been an increase of 27.5 percent more registered nurses, 15.4 percent more licensed practical nurses, and nearly 10 percent more psychiatric nurses in the province.

NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman called Albertans’ lack of access to family doctors “unacceptable” and emergency department wait times “dangerously high.”

“More than a million Albertans had to visit an emergency department with many reporting they were there for routine care which could be done in a doctor’s office, if they had a family doctor,” Hoffman said in an emailed statement.

Family Doctors

Nearly one in five (18 percent) adult Albertans are without a regular family doctor, the report indicated, adding that within this 18 percent, 10 percent have been actively searching for a family doctor without success, and 4 percent use walk-in clinics for their primary care needs.

Meanwhile, about 23 percent of those searching for a family doctor report that there are no doctors taking new patients in the area where they live.

“This ongoing access challenge is a major concern for both patients and providers,” the report says. “However, there is positive momentum for change.”

The report noted that the Alberta government announced introduction of the Primary Care Physician Compensation Model in April 2024, which intends to attract and retain family and rural doctors by providing a more flexible and sustainable compensation approach. The model blends traditional fee-for-service billing with payments based on time and patient complexity and also offsets for time not spent on direct patient care such as administrative tasks.

The province has also committed $57 million over three years to support family doctors and nurse practitioners with costs related to increasing their number of patients. Each provider could receive up to $10,000 each year.

The report is based on an online survey of 1,120 adult Albertans conducted by ThinkHQ Public Affairs from May 28 to June 3. AMA says the data was weighted to reflect the gender, age, and regional composition of Alberta’s population. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of this size is +/- 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.