Pincher Creek woman forced to wait four days for surgery after breaking hip

The family of 94-year-old Audrey McRae says she fell and broke her hip on May 25. They say she then had to wait for nearly four days for emergency surgery.

The family of a 94-year-old Pincher Creek woman is speaking out after the senior was forced to spend four days waiting for emergency surgery after breaking her hip.

Audrey McRae fell and broke her hip last Thursday.

Thirty minutes later, she was found by her daughter, who took her to the Pincher Creek Health Centre.

Nearly a day later, McRae managed to get an ambulance to Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge.

“We had to get her X-rayed there. And then we couldn’t get an ambulance, so she lay in emergency there overnight because that hospital was at capacity as well,” Joan Boras, McRae’s daughter, told CTV News.

But the waiting had only just started — McRae didn’t get into emergency surgery until Sunday morning, nearly four days after her fall.

McRae’s family says the ER was being serviced by just one surgeon.

“By himself, the surgeon is trying to work through who’s the most urgent person next. I know they have protocols in place for that,” Boras said.

“But still honestly, it’s just wrong.”

McRae has since been moved back to the Pincher Creek Health Centre and is recovering.

But healthcare advocates say stories like these are becoming more common.

“It’s frustrating and upsetting to hear about this experience, but unfortunately this is becoming commonplace in our hospitals right now,” said Friends of Medicare executive director Chris Gallaway.

“It’s a direct result of government decisions (and) what they’ve prioritized in terms of surgeries.”

The Alberta government has fallen behind in adding triage liaison physicians to emergency rooms, it had pledged to bring to hospitals no later than Feb. 1.

The province says it’s working with the Alberta Medical Association to get these physicians added, saying in a statement that discussions with the AMA are ongoing.

“Alberta’s government is focused on appropriately compensating physicians while maintaining fairness across specialties and responsible use of public funds,” the statement said.

The AMA says a triage physician likely would not have sped up McRae’s wait time for surgery and that the only way to decrease wait times is to add more surgeons to the workforce.

“We’ve been waiting for these positions to come online for a number of months. It has been frustrating having the delay in actually getting those sorted out,” said AMA president Brian Wirzba.