Red Deer hospital diverting all but ‘life or limb’ emergency surgeries to Edmonton and Calgary

The Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre is diverting all emergent surgical cases — “with the exception of emergency life or limb cases” — to facilities in Edmonton and Calgary as the hospital is unable to keep up with the pressure on its urgent surgical list.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Alberta Health Services said the central Alberta hospital is experiencing an increase in the number of patients at the site who require surgery.

The increase in surgical demand comes amid ongoing vacancies with the anesthesiology team, AHS said.

“The site is currently unable to keep pace with the number of cases being placed on the urgent surgical add list. These are cases that need to be treated in less than 72 hours,” AHS said in a statement.

AHS said it has exhausted all options to bolster operating room capacity at the Red Deer hospital and surrounding rural sites. As such, AHS has implemented a temporary surgical diversion in order to ensure patient safety.

As of 9 p.m. Jan. 31, all emergent surgical cases — with the exception of emergency life or limb cases and those patients already admitted to RDRHC — are being diverted to facilities in Calgary or Edmonton, depending on a patient’s proximity.

1:41 Alberta health minister addresses Red Deer hospital ER patient dying while waiting for care

AHS said patients who are already on the surgical add list will be seen at the Red Deer hospital. A small number of elective procedures may also be postponed to help create capacity for more urgent cases.

AHS expects the diversion to be in place for the rest of the week, but hopes to resume usual surgical processes as quickly as possible.

“This is not a decision that we take lightly, and it has only been made following extensive conversation and exploration to ensure all possible options have been exhausted,” AHS said.

“We recognize that such a diversion impacts our patients, who will receive care further from home than normal and in some cases, have a procedure postponed. This is not ideal and we regret the frustration and disruption such a step causes to patients and their families.

“This also impacts our surgical teams who are doing their utmost with finite resources to see as many patients as quickly as possible.”

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AHS said it is actively recruiting anesthesiologists and OR nursing staff to try to increase surgical volume at the Red Deer hospital. In-house training is also underway for staff through an OR training program.

1:42 Surgery transfers and delays cause some Albertans to find help elsewhere

Dr. Ravin Bastiampillai is a urologist at Red Deer Regional Hospital. He noted the hospital has struggled with a lack of resources and infrastructure for years.

“It’s all kind of culminated recently, due to just large sort of volumes and lack of beds at the hospital,” he explained.

He underscored the hospital is still functioning well and there’s no imminent collapse, but there are concerns.

“My fear and the fear of many of my colleagues is that if Red Deer Hospital continues to be under resourced over time, the quality of care for folks living in central Alberta will be diminished compared to Albertans living elsewhere, such as in Edmonton or Calgary,” he said.

In the past few months this has been the second surgical diversion that’s occurred at the hospital, according to Bastiampillai.

“Given the fact that we have surgical staff who are ready and willing to work, but there just being a lack of resources available to get that work done, I think that’s been the biggest source of frustration for both ourselves as surgeons as well as our patients.”

Late last month, a patient died while waiting for care at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre emergency department. AHS said the patient had been triaged and reassessed by emergency staff, but died before receiving further care.

The emergency department was fully staffed at the time, AHS said.

“We acknowledge that wait times at (the hospital) were long at certain times over the weekend due to a surge in demand, and an increase in very sick patients,” AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said at the time. “We do not know if this incident was the result of wait times in the Red Deer emergency department.

“AHS is reviewing this incident, including the care provided to this patient and the circumstances of their death.”

2:00 Patient dies while waiting for care at Red Deer hospital ER

In a COVID-19 update on Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney said Alberta is currently operating at about 85 per cent of its typical surgical capacity.