‘Patients choking’: Alberta ER doctors concerned about equipment leading to respiratory illness

Alberta emergency room doctors are worried about the health system already in place as the province enters a season of respiratory illness.

“We are in a lot of pain (in the emergency room) and it is already the beginning of September, we have not started breathing time, it will get worse,” said Dr. Shazma Mithani, emergency physician. Edmonton.

Mithani says her waiting room is usually filled with more than 50 people.

“People are really close, they may feel uncomfortable when they come to the chest or stomach, they are sitting in a chair and they are just hoping that their time to go to the doctor will come,” he said. .

“It’s not dignified at all, it’s certainly not the way we want to provide patient care.”

Outside the emergency room, Mithani says there are usually 10-15 patients stretched out in the hallways who have been released by EMS and are waiting for care.

“We’ve had a long summer, and summer is very slow in the health system, so we’re a lot behind as we head into the busy season,” he said.

“I’m actually worried about how we’re going to do that because if it’s 50 in the waiting room now, it’s going to be 60 or 70 months from now.”

Dr. Warren Thirsk, an emergency physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency medicine section, said the work of doctors is gradually increasing.

“It’s destroying jobs, we’re drowning in patients right now and we don’t have the capacity to care for everyone who comes to us in need,” said Thirsk.

“We don’t have the resources that Albertans need to take care of them.”

On a typical workday, Thirsk said emergency physicians see somewhere between 20 and 30 patients.

“When we start operations with 50 or more patients in the waiting room, which is common and common these days, there is no hope of seeing a portion of our people waiting in the waiting room. wait, and this leads to long. -written wait times,” he said.

The Ministry of Health says the province is working to create a new provincial health care agency focused on “specialized patient-centered care,” to help Albertans get care when they need it.

“The organization will work directly with acute care providers, including AHS and Alliance Health, to accelerate access to quality care, lower wait times for emergency departments, and ensure that every Alberta journey through the intensive care system is efficient and effective,” the Office of the Minister of Health said in a statement.

“AHS continues to look for creative ways to retain and build our valuable and valuable workforce to solve the organization’s challenges. We know there is more to be done, that’s why “The Alberta government is committed to working with the AMA to address any changes to physician compensation, including ARP rates and after-hours compensation.”

Despite health care reform coming, Mithani says the system has already failed.

“We are on the verge of another pass, it has failed, and the system will no longer help people the way it should be,” said Mithani.

A province-wide problem

The problem is not isolated to Edmonton, currently, there are 12 partially or fully closed departments or intensive care beds across Alberta, leaving other rural health centers operating without and doctors.

“What I’m hearing is that in rural areas, sometimes the medical assistance is not there,” said Marie-Therese Mageau, president of Local 301 for the United Nurses of Alberta.

Mageau said nurses across the province are facing pressure to fill emergency rooms, as the ratio of patients to nurses continues to increase.

He said: “You are scared by the fact that you are going into other shifts without staff.

Dr. Paul Parks, president of the Alberta Medical Association, said the province should focus on improving after-hours care compensation, not rehabilitation.

“If we don’t stabilize and maintain the foundation, there will be nothing left to reorganize,”

“It has the wrong priorities. It really makes things more difficult now. ”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Chelan Skulski