Pediatric doctor voices concerns over postponed surgeries at Stollery Children’s Hospital

Watch above: A leading pediatric doctor is calling it a crisis that could have been predicted 20 years ago. In the wake of postponed surgeries due to a lack of beds at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, Dr. Rob Seal is speaking out about overcrowding at the facility. Laurel Gregory reports.

EDMONTON — One of Edmonton’s leading pediatric doctors is speaking out about overcrowding at the Stollery Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Rob Seal, the director of Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia at the Stollery, says he’s concerned about the growing number of children’s surgeries that are being postponed because there’s no place for them to recover.

“It has a huge impact on our patients and families. And we see this every day,” said Seal. “These children go through the anxiety of having the ‘night before surgery’ happen more than once because they get postponed and then they have to starve all night again because of the pre-operative fasting.”

Seal has been in pediatric care in Edmonton for 25 years. During that time, he’s seen the number of young patients increase, but says the number of beds needed to care for them hasn’t kept up.

“Most of the apparent growth at the Stollery was actually just because they closed the beds at the Misericordia, closed the beds at the Alex (Royal Alexandra), closed the beds at the Grey Nuns, and moved them to the Stollery.”

Two weeks ago, Global News spoke with Edmonton mother who was livid about the cancellation of her six-year-old son’s surgery. Jaclyn Hedges said her son Noah, who has cerebral palsy, was scheduled for a heel cord lengthening procedure which could help him walk more easily. But soon after Noah was checked in for his surgery, Hedges says she was told the procedure would be postponed because no recovery bed was available.

READ MORE: Edmonton mother sounds alarm on pediatric surgery delays

According to Alberta Health Services, between April and July this year, 154 surgeries were postponed at the Stollery; nearly half of the postponements were because recovery beds weren’t available.

Seal says it isn’t uncommon to find several patients in intensive care waiting for ward beds. He believes at least 50 bed are needed to meet the demand.

“We run our Intensive Care Units so close to the maximum efficiency point that we are often at the point where we don’t have a backup bed readily available,” said Seal.

Dr. David Mador, AHS’s medical director for Northern Alberta, says he is looking to create new spaces over the next year. However, he adds it’s not just about new capacity, it’s about making better use of the existing beds.

“There’s a variety of different initiatives that are underway, including trying to look for new spaces for inpatient beds, trying to use the intensive care beds more efficiently so that the patients come in and out of the Intensive Care Unit quicker, so we get more capacity,” explained Mador, “and then looking at extended hours for our day surgery unit so that we can handle more day surgery patients in the unit – same number of beds.”

Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel says there are pressures throughout the health care system and the Stollery has been identified as a facility in need of a solution.

“We need to be more creative and dynamic in how we do things, and more innovative,” said Mandel. “And we need to work with our partners, our doctors and the hospital people to find solutions.”

Seal believes the solution lies in adding new beds. He says it should have been in the works years ago.

“It would not be incorrect to call it a crisis, but it’s a crisis that has evolved and could have been predicted 20 years ago,” he said.

With files from Laurel Gregory, Global News.