The President of the Alberta Medical Association is calling on the provincial government to declare a health-care crisis as surgery, ER and ambulance wait times increase.
Dr. Paul Parks says the struggles around capacity and workforce staffing have reached a point where “small tweaks and little small changes to a standard operating procedure are not going to fix things.”
He add that the Alberta health-care system needs a massive overhaul, saying that currently, “all roads lead to the Emergency Department,” and system-wide problems are decreasing the quality and timeliness of care.
Staffing issues are also a major concern to AMA members, as there is difficulty managing the influx of the roughly 10,000 newcomers arriving in the province each month.
Some of those staffing issues have also been happening locally, most notably in Fairview which has seen frequent doctor shortages in recent weeks.
Wait times for emergency care have been a problem in several hospitals in the Peace Region, but reports indicate that Alberta is fairing better in that than other provinces.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
