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Patients detail ‘disaster’ inside Alberta emergency departments
Emergency rooms in Alberta face overcrowding due to staffing shortages and outdated infrastructure, with some patients waiting over 24 hours, officials said.
- On Jan. 28, 2026, The Canadian Press reported patients described Alberta emergency departments as `disastrous`, citing overcrowding and long waits, while 44-year-old patient Prashant Sreekumar died after waiting nearly eight hours at Grey Nuns Community Hospital .
- Front-Line staff argue the crisis has been years in the making, citing inadequate staffing, siloed care, rising demand, and the flu season described by Parks as `a 1,000-pound weight that landed on top of the broken camel's back`, with a bed-base from 1988.
- Caregivers reported Dianne Fedec waited over five hours on a stretcher before receiving a bed at WestView Health Centre, then endured three patients in a two-bed room for more than a week.
- Acute Care Alberta is coordinating a system-wide response including overcapacity spaces and expedited discharges, while Hospital and Surgical Health Services Minister Matt Jones said a new triage system will launch Sunday in Edmonton and Calgary emergency departments.
- Emergency-Room doctors sent a letter to the provincial government earlier this month, while Parks wrote `Our hallways and waiting rooms have become death zones`, warning of patient dangers.
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8 Articles
8 Articles
Patients detail ‘disaster’ inside Alberta emergency departments
Sick with pneumonia and a blood infection, Paula Krawiec said her 77-year-old mother waited 24 hours to see a doctor in the emergency department at an Edmonton-area hospital last month. Over in Calgary, it took 24 hours for Colleen Whitley’s 74-year-old mother — who suffered broken ribs and vertebrae fractures after a fall and was also sick with the flu and pneumonia — to get admitted, said Whitley, her caregiver. Edmonton father Aaron Currie, 4…
Coverage Details
Total News Sources8
Leaning Left4Leaning Right1Center1Last UpdatedBias Distribution67% Left
Bias Distribution
- 67% of the sources lean Left
67% Left
L 67%
C 17%
R 16%
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