Alberta health officials to deliver update on hospital capacity as doctors declare crisis

Albertans will get an update Thursday on the state of the province’s acute care system as frontline doctors continue to declare that provincial hospitals are dangerously overcrowded. 

Health officials are expected to provide an update on acute patient capacity at a news conference at 12 p.m.  CBC News will broadcast the news conference live and you can watch it here. 

Hospital Services Minister Matt Jones and senior health leaders including David Diamond, interim CEO of Acute Care Alberta, and Erin O’Neill, interim chair and CEO of Alberta Health Services, are expected to speak. 

Hospital officials are also expected to update an investigation into the death of a patient inside the emergency department of Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital.

Prashant Sreekumar, 44, died on Dec. 22 after allegedly waiting nearly eight hours to see a doctor about his chest pain.

Acute Care Alberta, a new provincial agency tasked with overseeing urgent, short-term hospital care, including emergency departments, and Covenant Health, which operates the Grey Nuns, launched a joint review into the circumstances around his death.

Physicians have been calling for an urgent response to improve patient care as hospitals across the province contend with staffing and capacity issues. 

Dr. Paul Parks, president-elect of the section of emergency medicine with the Alberta Medical Association, has called for the provincial government to declare a state of emergency  to ensure patient loads are better managed.

Doctors have also called for better co-ordination and leadership within Alberta’s health-care system which has undergone sweeping restructuring.

Acute Care Alberta officials have said the province is navigating a particularly difficult flu season, which has placed considerable strain on hospital emergency departments. 

The agency said Monday it is working to create additional capacity with measures that include dedicating 336 beds for flu patients, accelerating patient discharges when possible and opening designated surge spaces to manage increased demand.