'Waiting too long for care': Walk-in health clinic wait times in Alberta drop as ER waits continue surging

ER wait times too long: doctors Doctors say many Albertans are leaving emergency rooms without receiving treatment because of the long wait times. Chelan Skulski reports.

While a new study shows the average wait time for a walk-in health clinic in Alberta is the lowest across the country, emergency department wait times are soaring.

According to a national wait time index published by medimap, data from 1,200 walk-in clinics across Canada showed B.C. and Nova Scotia had the highest wait times, at 58 and 44 minutes, respectively.

The average wait time in Alberta is at 18 minutes, seven minutes below the national average, medimap says.

Sherwood Park ranked as the city with the shortest wait time in the country, with an average of four minutes. Meanwhile, Grande Prairie ranked as the third-longest nationally, with patients waiting an average of 45 minutes before receiving care.

Alberta's average wait time for walk-in clinics decreased by seven minutes from 2019 to 2021, medimap says.

When it comes to patients accessing the emergency room, Dr. Raj Sherman says it is a different story.

"I've been working for 30 years, and it's been very difficult recently," said the emergency physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton.

"People are waiting far too long for care," Sherman added. "We have a lot of sick people that show up for care at the major hospitals and they leave without ever being seen."

The percentage of people leaving emergency rooms or urgent care centres without treatment is increasing.

In 2020, the Edmonton health zone saw about 8.5 per cent of patients left without receiving care, Alberta Health Services data shows. The following year that lowered to approximately seven per cent. According to the year-to-date data for 2022, 10 per cent of patients are walking out of Edmonton's ERs without care.

"I am seeing, and many of my colleagues, we are seeing a lot of sick people presenting for care. They see a full waiting room with 30 to 40 people waiting," he said.

"And they either leave after seeing the full waiting room because they're told the wait is six to eight hours, or they wait for six to eight hours, and then they get frustrated, and they leave," he added.

Sherman insists it's not a matter of Albertans turning to ERs instead of walk-in clinics but that a deficit in healthcare from the 18 months of COVID-19 delays is causing even sicker patients.

"Because of the 18 months delays in care, people's diabetes is out of control. Their cancer is worse," Sherman said. "They have major medical problems."

"We have a lot of illness in the community, partly because of COVID and partly because of the delays of COVID," he added. "As well, we were already running the system at 98 to 99 per cent capacity before COVID ever hit."

When it comes to patients leaving without receiving emergency care, Sherman says many of those people return to hospital, but have to be rushed to care.

"These patients come back a heck of a lot sicker, and then we see them right away because their triage category is triage category 1 or 2," he said. "They're critically ill. But this is unsafe."

The doctor invited Alberta's premier and health minister to tour his hospital, an invite Jason Copping said he would consider.

"We are investing in more resources to address that," Copping said. "Our whole budget approached this with an additional $600 million this year."

The health minister added that money would go toward expanding health-care system capacity, including additional intensive care and continuing care beds to reduce ER backlogs. That money will also go toward hiring additional health-care staff, Copping said.

The Official Opposition calls it too little, too late.

"It's unfortunate we are here," said David Shepherd, NDP health critic. "It's repeated decisions by this government to push our healthcare system to the limits."