EDMONTON — Alberta’s New Democrats say overcrowding in hospitals is causing even more cancelled surgeries and hardship on families.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley says new data from Alberta Health Services – obtained through a Freedom of Information request – shows that nearly 1,400 surgeries have been cancelled across the province this fiscal year.
She says the province is on track to exceed the number of cancelled surgeries in the year prior.
Notley noted the problem is particularly bad at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, where there have been 200 cancelled surgeries already this year, almost double the total number from last year.
READ MORE: Alberta NDP says hospital infrastructure years behind because of neglect
“This is unacceptable,” said Notley.
“When a parent brings their child to the hospital for a pre-scheduled, necessary acute care surgery, they should know that it’s going to happen.”
Notley says the problem is capacity: not enough beds for children to recover in.
“The fact of the matter is that Alberta’s population is growing by the size of Red Deer every year,” she said. “We have the youngest population in the country. That means you need to build more beds for kids.”
Health Minister Stephen Mandel said this year’s flu numbers took a toll on hospitals.
“A lot of the challenges this year is with the flu season and when people come into the hospital sometimes that takes priority and we only have so many beds.”
“We do 158,000 surgeries a year and we’ve cancelled 1,300.
“To those people getting their surgery cancelled, we feel very bad but at the same time, we’re doing all we can to ensure that Albertans get the best care possible,” Mandel added.
Mandel said the province’s plan to open more long-term care beds will hopefully ease the pressure.
READ MORE: Province announces hundreds of beds, funding for emergency rooms
“So, gradually over the next year or 15-month period, we’ll begin to correct the imbalance.”
In October 2014, a group of 20 physicians from the Stollery outlined their concerns over the “alarming trend” of postponed and cancelled procedures over several previous months. At the time, the doctors said several initiatives were in place to help address the growing demand, but in the long term, the hospital needed to expand.
READ MORE: Pediatric doctors speak out about ‘unacceptably long’ surgery wait times at Stollery
Notley says government mismanagement of health care and a lack of seniors care beds have had a disastrous domino effect throughout the care system.
With files from The Canadian Press
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