Pressure from the larger city hospitals are starting to impact the services of those in smaller cities like Medicine Hat. (CHAT News)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

As viral illnesses surge, pressure starts to build on southern Alberta hospitals

Dec 13, 2023 | 5:12 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A surge of viral illnesses are putting strain on hospitals over capacity and understaffed in Alberta’s big cities that, left unattended, could bring consistently longer wait times to the emergency rooms of smaller cities, an advocate says.

The rise of influenza, RSV and COVID-19 cases are putting pressure on a system already strained and Alberta’s south is not immune, president of the Alberta Medical Association Dr. Paul Parks said Wednesday.

Dr. Paul Parks, president of the Alberta Medical Association, says southern Alberta hospitals are not immune to the pressures facing emergency departments in Alberta’s big cities. (CHAT News)

“In Lethbridge and in Medicine Hat, we’ll have days where we’re holding patients in the emergency departments as well because the hospitals are full,” Parks told CHAT News.

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New Democrat health critic Luanne Metz said Tuesday the United Conservative Party government needs to prioritize helping the hospitals.

“UCP must take immediate action to ease the excruciating pressure on hospitals in Alberta,” Metz said in a statement.

“It is unconscionable that Danielle Smith and the UCP stand idly by as health care workers and those Albertans need their care are suffering.”

Parks said the health care system’s problems have been building to a crescendo over the course of several different governments.

“A lot of these issues we’re running into now have been brewing and growing for over 10 years and lot of them are coming together; the capacity challenges, the acuity and complexity and the workforce challenges are all hitting at the same time,” Parks said.

“We’re at a point where we desperately need some very significant, unique and creative investment into our health care system to stabilize it.”