Watch above: An Edmonton mother is livid after a surgery that would have helped her son walk didn’t happen. As Laurel Gregory reports, it was cancelled last-minute because no recovery beds were available.
EDMONTON — An Edmonton mother is livid her six-year-old son’s surgery was cancelled because no post-operative bed was available.
Jaclyn Hedges’ son Noah has cerebral palsy, which affects his ability to balance and walk.
“He basically walks on his tippy toes,” said Hedges. “What happens with that is you have poor balance, so Noah is having fall after fall, day after day. And so with the walker he is able to do a little bit more but, of course, it really decreases his quality of life.”
On Tuesday, Noah was scheduled for a heel cord lengthening procedure at the Stollery Children’s Hospital which could help him walk more easily. Hedges says she arrived with her son and checked in but was told soon after the surgery would be postponed because no recovery bed was available.
“There should be more notice,” said Hedges. “There shouldn’t be, bringing your child back and you’re ready to go and then they just come back and say it’s cancelled like we’re making dinner reservations at the Swiss Chalet. It’s ridiculous.”
Hedges came forward because she believes other parents are experiencing the same thing.
Alberta Health Services won’t confirm if the number of postponed surgeries is growing. The health board indicates between April 1 and July 31, 2014, 154 surgeries were postponed at the Stollery Children’s Hospital. Sixty-eight of those were delayed because a post-operative bed wasn’t available. During the same time period, 3,289 surgeries were performed.
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Dr. David Mador is Alberta Health Services’ vice president and medical director for northern Alberta.
“We are feeling the pressure and the strain in the system, but the actual number of cancellations compared to the number of surgeries we are doing is relatively small,” said Mador.
“The population growth and the increase in the number of children being born in the province of Alberta is unprecedented and both the children’s hospital in Calgary and in Edmonton are very, very busy.”
According to Dr. Paul Parks of the Alberta Medical Association, the issue isn’t isolated to one hospital or one city. Global News learned last Thursday Calgary paramedics were told to redirect their patients to other medical centres because one hospital’s ER was full.
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“If there’s no beds in the hospital, scheduled surgeries will get cancelled,” said Parks. “Cancer care gets cancelled. Diagnostic care gets cancelled. So all the pieces of the health care that goes through the acute care system, if there’s no capacity, it gets cancelled, rescheduled, delayed.
“It has major impacts on the health of patients throughout the entire stream of the health care system.”
While Noah’s surgery has been rescheduled for Oct. 14, his mother still wants to raise awareness about postponed surgeries. She is a registered orthopedic technician at a hospital and worries about the toll cancellations take on patients and their families.
“If you have surgeons ready and willing to change someone’s life and they can’t even do it because there isn’t a bed available, that is backwards and it’s wrong and it needs to be looked at,” said Hedges.
Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel says he is open to exploring “any option” that can help avoid postponed surgeries.
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