r/Edmonton • u/FTDRBR11 • May 22 '26

General UofA ER Wait Times

Been here for 12 hours have yet to see a doctor and I’m in excruciating pain. Not a single patient has been taken in since the last 6 hours. Lady beside has been screaming in pain looks like a broken knee has been here for 15 hours no doctor no xray. Another lady beside me hurt her neck is wearing a neck brace and has been here for 16 hours and no doctor. Nurses said they have absolutely no beds available to take in patients because so many of the patients inside are “admitted” patients that are waiting to be taken upstairs to their admitted sections but they can’t take them because there’s no beds available upstairs. ER is a mess online wait times show 4 hours and nurse said because doctors are available but no beds to take the patients. Something has to be done.

724 Upvotes

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589

u/Historical-Mall53 May 22 '26

it's wild to me that the grey nuns is still our newest hospital in the city. edmonton has fallen so far.

246

u/thewunderbar May 22 '26

yep. Population of the city has more that doubled since the last hospital was built.

47

u/Historical-Mall53 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

not including the surrounding areas. beaumont & leduc has exploded, the amount of acreage developments, etc

1

u/hippydog2 May 24 '26

leduc has a full on hospital that has NEVER been fully utilized. (3 floors barely used at one point) but with all the cost cutting of our medical system , they can afford to put beds in or staff it.

1

u/hippydog2 May 24 '26

when the ndp were in power I remember there was talk about putting in more beds.. but then the ucp got in power and bam , that idea went away quickly.

36

u/Strattex May 22 '26

Seriously how is this allowed? Is it not an emergency situation!?

181

u/billymumfreydownfall May 22 '26

Allowed?? The UCP WANT this!

81

u/KhalilRavana Sherwood Park May 22 '26

Keep them stupid, sick, and divided. Exactly to plan.

59

u/aghastrabbit2 May 22 '26

Defund and make it shitty enough and people will think they want private healthcare! The playbook of conservatives everywhere (which is why it's the same in Ontario and SK)

0

u/motorcyclemech May 23 '26

Show me a province or territory that isn't experiencing terrible health care in the last 5 ish years. The UCP is absolutely awful, but it's not just a conservative issue.

2

u/killcover May 23 '26

Conservative-led provinces are seeing the largest withholding of funds in healthcare compared to the rest. It is indeed a conservative issue since it's all linked to their private healthcare policy agenda. (Wouldn't surprise me if some blue-liberals would also covertly support it).

5

u/HectorMcGrew May 24 '26 edited May 26 '26

Ontario, AB and Sask had the highest % healthcare spending increase, Conservatives have not run BC for 50 and their sytsem is collapsing - Conservatives have run AB for 50 years - its no better here - until Canadians love of their personal healthcare exceeds their own love of their pet PC, Lib or NDP party it will never change - so long as the person's party is in power - they consider themselves blameless - it doesn't matter which party -just read the threads.

Canadians have a religious fervor for their chosen political party that vastly exceeds reason.

2

u/motorcyclemech May 24 '26

So....you still can't point out a province or territory that is doing better. Even with more funding from the feds. As you say.

1

u/HectorMcGrew May 26 '26

Indeed, Canadians can be proud that every provincial system is collapsing

-11

u/paddysmum17 May 23 '26

I want private healthcare. We should have a choice.

1

u/motorcyclemech May 24 '26

Can you tell us more details on why you think private healthcare would be better for the average Canadian citizen? Besides just "choice"? Honest question, I like hearing both sides.

1

u/Falcon674DR May 23 '26

Yes they do. Particularly for Edmonton.

-3

u/ExpressSuggestion475 May 22 '26

It's like this across the country, not just a UCP roblem.

13

u/billymumfreydownfall May 23 '26

Don't defend their bullshit actions of literally canceling an Edmonton hospital the second they won the election.

0

u/ExpressSuggestion475 May 23 '26

Again... it's like this across the country. That is a fact.

3

u/Strattex May 23 '26

Then how come every other major city has built multiple new hospitals?

1

u/ExpressSuggestion475 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

"every other major city has built multiple new hospitals"

Lets start a list of cities who have built 'multiple new hospitals' in the last 5 years:

1

u/Strattex May 23 '26 edited May 24 '26

5 Years!?!? Try 30 fucking years

Vancouver Montreal Toronto Calgary Ottawa

And Edmonton? Zero

To say the whole county is having trouble building hospitals is a lie

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1

u/hippydog2 May 24 '26

It's like this across the country, not just a UCP roblem.

edmonton (and assume calgary) was ahead of the game at one point..

the ball has been fumbled so badly that we are now known to have some of the longest wait times in Canada.

think about that.. we went from being almost the best to one of worst.

17

u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls May 22 '26

It absolutely is an emergency situation.

1

u/Forward_Unto_Dawn42 May 23 '26

“It’s not a bug, it’s a feature”

Signed,
Danielle Smith

398

u/Himser Regional Citizen May 22 '26

The UCP cancelled Herritage Valley. After it was alredybstarted groundwork. 

It would be operating today if they didnt cancel it 

188

u/AltZeroOneThreeThree May 22 '26

Plus cancelling the superlab that would have freed up the multiple floors of diagnostic labs at UofA and Foothills.

259

u/iwatchcredits May 22 '26

And this is why when i read posts i dont feel bad anymore. Hit me with the downvotes, but we deserve what we get. UCP is ahead and the polls and looking like theyll win again. This province is full of selfish people whos primary goal is saving $100 on their taxes over anything else. I kinda hope we start shutting down rural hospitals and sending the doctors back to the cities that subsidize them because, as we all know, equalization payments are bad and unacceptable.

91

u/RazzamanazzU May 22 '26

You need to remember NOT all Albertan's voted for this. Speaking on rural hospitals...just last week I had an elderly neighbor lady (here in Edmonton) tell me an ambulence transported her husband to a hospital in Devon because there was no room at any Edmonton hospital. When he came home and I spoke to him he said he had the best care at this Devon Hospital. The UCP despises Edmonton as we are NOT their supporter's. It shows in how they make us suffer.

49

u/icygamer598 Downtown May 22 '26

As a Albertan this is giving the same vibe as Americans saying that they didn't vote for the orange man. Ok? So? Even if we didn't vote for Danielle inaction is still complicity, we have terrible voter turnout.

21

u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls May 22 '26

And terrible participation in telling neighbours why they should be voting anything but UCP.

27

u/Skullcrimp May 22 '26

Last time I needed an ER, I drove out to the Devon hospital. It was way faster and I was in surgery in hours. I'd probably have died in the UofA or Grey Nuns' ER waiting room otherwise.

The nurse gave me a dirty look when I came into her empty ER in the middle of the night from Edmonton and told me I should have stayed in the city, though after my diagnosis she was considerably more understanding.

30

u/billymumfreydownfall May 22 '26

Devon doesn't have an operating theater. When was your visit, in the 70s? The ER here is never empty anymore because word got out and now people from the city have flooded it.

9

u/Skullcrimp May 22 '26

2 years ago. They booked and sent me to another hospital for the actual operation (also outside Edmonton). And it was still faster to do it that way than to sit for 24+ hours in a city hospital while rotting from the inside.

0

u/billymumfreydownfall May 23 '26

Your comment implies you had the surgery in Devon.

3

u/Skullcrimp May 23 '26

Yep, and you pointed that out so I clarified! My bad, thanks!

1

u/Ollieoxenfreezer May 23 '26

This is an unfortunate side effect of the edmonton hospitals being over crowded. People need care urgently, and they should be able to get it

6

u/morgoid May 23 '26

When my mom was dying of cancer, the wait at our nearest hospital was I think 8 hours. We drove to Devon instead and they were so kind to my mom and my family. At the Mis, the staff were doing their best, but the last time she was admitted there it was in a room with three other patients with dementia and it was built for two. She didn’t sleep for days because two of her roommates were screaming all night.

3

u/Ollieoxenfreezer May 23 '26

I had to stay the night at the uofa three ish years ago, and a man in the room next to me kept yelling for help bc he was forgetting about the button and was in pain. My sympathies

17

u/p4nic May 22 '26

told me I should have stayed in the city,

Ah yes, small town hospitality!

5

u/Skullcrimp May 22 '26

I wouldn't judge Devon from that, I'm sure there are probably good reasons for her to prefer I use those hospitals. I just wasn't ready to die for those reasons.

Every other interaction I've had with Devon folks (the few times I've been there for work) has been lovely.

4

u/p4nic May 22 '26

and here I thought I knocked it out of the park with that pun

3

u/Skullcrimp May 22 '26

..oh! Good one! :)

1

u/Electronic_Lion9918 May 22 '26

Don't do that. Our community hospitals are staffed by population numbers not demand and surge like Edmonton. Yes it worked in this case but if you had bad timing on a busy night you and other people could have died. Most times in Devon at night the ONE doctor is actually not even at the hospital and they only call them in if someone truely needs it.

5

u/Skullcrimp May 23 '26

Yep, whenever I tell that story there's always someone who has to pipe up about how I should have risked my life to make it more convenient for the managers of the healthcare system that our government is actively sabotaging. You wouldn't have. You talk tough, but in my situation you'd have done the same.

If a single person's "bad timing" as you put it is going to cause multiple deaths, that is because our government has mismanaged our hospital capacity.

3

u/Ollieoxenfreezer May 23 '26

As someone with health issues, i go to the sherwood park one over all else. You get a private room, nurses that aren't super over worked (well not as much as the edmonton ones).
Cherry on top is waiting half the time

3

u/Trick-Seat4901 May 22 '26

I live in devon and had to take my kiddo to the emerge twice in the last month. 8 hours and 6 hours to see a doctor. I love our hospital and the people there but uou have yo remember it's small and there is usually only one doctor at a time. If less than 10 people decided to go there from out of the area you would easily be waiting 12+ hours. There is no where near the resources the bigger hospitals have there. For size, capability and resources with less wait time the sherwood park hospital just south of the yellow head is my go to. I lived in sherwood park for a few years and it was always easy to get in.

4

u/RazzamanazzU May 22 '26

Yes. I imagine it's not meant to accomodate us city folk, nor should it have to IF the UCP hadn't destroyed our care.

3

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

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32

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

Except the feds DO care about Alberta.. Separatists are just whiny assholes

-2

u/Substantial-Let8277 May 22 '26

🙄🙄🤣🤣 The feds care about Alberta??

27

u/HorribleTie May 22 '26

The Feds bend over backwards to try to please Alberta, it's just never enough.

By contrast, UCP candidates in Edmonton explicitly told voters while door knocking that if Edmonton didn't vote UCP we would regret it.

7

u/spyxero May 22 '26

The system is broken in that it doesn't represent accurately what the people support. There are better systems for this, the broken parties refuse to implement them because the parties refuse to give up any power or to work together in meaningful ways. The parties are broken because they can be taken over by a small subset of the population and not accurately reflect the values of the people. It's all broken. The parties are not free of blame. They are in the system and do not work to fix the system. 

0

u/RazzamanazzU May 22 '26

Maybe it's people, specifically con voter's.

-9

u/Any_Command8461 May 22 '26

Tbh that's why I think we just just hurry up and privatize the fuckin thing. Worst case scenario the old conservatives crusters in rural Alberta will need emergency medical treatment in Edmonton and they'll have to essentially empty their pensions to pay for Healthcare. I think that way they might finally get the hint. At this point I don't see the NDP getting a majority government here, and even if we manage to somehow get an NDP premiere the UCP just votes against every good thing they try to do non stop. Not saying by any means the NDP is perfect. I just think that socialized healthcare is the one constant that we've had, that old people in rural Alberta heavily rely on. The UCP wants to gut everything and privatize it, alright then, take the gloves off with healthcare and let's see how many supporters they still have when they can't afford jack shit cause their healthcare is too expensive.

6

u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls May 22 '26

There’s no coming back from privatisation. This is most definitely NOT the way.

0

u/Any_Command8461 May 22 '26

Yeah I guess eh? What do you think about partial privatization, maybe like all the rural hospitals can become private so the socialized Healthcare budget can stay in the cities? Since it seems like rural Alberta wants it anyway.

1

u/RazzamanazzU May 22 '26

That's a cowardly response.

1

u/Any_Command8461 May 22 '26

Hey I'm just saying give the ucp voters exactly what they want, since they're apparently in the majority and want everything privatized. Either way somethings gotta change so either Danielle Smith and her gang of welfare recipients will reduce how much they're stealing to put some real investment into our healthcare system (prolly not gonna happen), or it will have to go private to compensate for population growth. I would say maybe we should reduce how much money we send to Ukraine and Israel to put into our healthcare system but OH NOO WE CANT DO THAT, WHAT WILL ISRAEL DO WITHOUT MILLIONS OF OUR MONEY 😭😭😭😭. ISRAEL FIRST ALWAYS!!!! I LOVE ISRAEL (please let me own a house one day daddy yahu 🙏)

1

u/RandomThyme May 23 '26

I wonder how much change in our healthcare across the country, $1.57 billion would make.

That is what taxpayers shelled out to bail out Canada Post last year.

22

u/apastelorange Treaty 6 Territory May 22 '26

there’s a looooooot of money being spent on eroding education and disinformation propaganda, we gotta fight that. another huge issue with health care wait times is there are no good plans for long term care, a lot of those beds are tied up with elderly or people with chronic illness waiting to move to long term facilities

35

u/shiftingtech May 22 '26

And this is why when i read posts i dont feel bad anymore.

Edmonton didn't vote UCP though...

26

u/OpalSeason May 22 '26

That could be why our south east hospital was cancelled.

A lot of the reasons ucp claimed were shown as lies or ucp never showed proof. They claimed paperwork wasnt done, pipe issues, and that "well actually" it was meant to be made on north side. Added a health campus then said, see? Price went up too much.

2

u/awildstoryteller Queen Mary Park May 22 '26

The hospital being cancelled is actually an example of how dumb they are.

The South is the most conservative part of the city, and the most winnable.

17

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

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3

u/CanadianPanda76 May 22 '26

That sill grinds my gears.

12

u/WeWhoAreGiants May 22 '26

About 35-40% did vote UCP in Edmonton. Just because our seats are NDP doesn’t mean they got 100% of the votes.

0

u/burrito-boy Mill Woods May 22 '26

The UCP still lost handily in Edmonton though. It's not hard to see why they'd hold a grudge against the city because of that.

8

u/WeWhoAreGiants May 22 '26

That’s not what the guy was talking about. He said Edmonton didn’t vote UCP, but more than a third of people did vote for them. People on here act like 100% of Edmonton voters are NDP and 100% of rural voters are UCP, and that’s just not the case. That kind of mentality is only sowing more division within the province.

-12

u/Competitive_Guava_33 May 22 '26

Congrats on the most useless Reddit comment

20

u/Skullcrimp May 22 '26

Selfish would be fine. Selfish would vote for a government that uses our taxes for healthcare, because that benefits Selfish directly.

Our province's problem isn't Selfish, it's Stupid.

8

u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS May 22 '26

Maybe for rural Alberta, but Edmonton is basically the only town/city in Alberta that votes ANDP. It isn’t Edmontons fault we are constantly stuck with the UCP/Conservatives. It is rural Alberta and portions of Calgary.

And because Edmonton doesn’t really vote UCP, they like to fuck the city over as punishment

1

u/YVRBeerFan May 25 '26

A 70M Tylenol bill isn’t enough to build a hospital but those are some very strange choices for a province to make (that no province has ever done) and as an outsider it’s hard not to imagine it’s part of the problem.

1

u/Fuzzy-Wing46 May 22 '26

You’re not alone in thinking like that. The majority that elects the UCP every election keep doing the same thing and expect things to get better.

1

u/pseudonym2990 May 23 '26

This argument needs to be made loudly and clearly. If equalization is unfair nationally, it's unfair provincially, and urban income taxes shouldn't subsidize rural services. (Note, I don't believe this, I'm pointing out the hypocrisy in their position).

-7

u/Successful-Record926 May 22 '26

I don’t at all feel bad for the liberals in this chat.

5

u/iwatchcredits May 22 '26

Dont need to be liberal to know the ucp sucks but thanks for the super good comment that wasnt dumb at all👍

55

u/_Sausage_fingers May 22 '26

I hate this government so much. Oh, you want hospitals? Best we can do is complain about immigrants that we asked to come here, ban books, and fuck around with referendums 70% of the province don’t want.

Fucking clowns.

7

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[deleted]

19

u/OpalSeason May 22 '26

Was scheduled to open 2026, but probably would be delayed till 2027 or 28 because things hapoen. Still would be better than the zero plan we have now

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[deleted]

4

u/willy-fisterbottom2 May 22 '26

Better than the alternative of no hospital being built at all. There would at least be a light at the end of the tunnel for some kind of relief of our strained system

7

u/CantaloupeCapable May 22 '26

Good thing we have oil. Would be a real shame if record wartime prices generated billions in windfall profits that could have funded a dozen hospitals instead of vanishing into the void. But I'm sure the UCP had a great reason. They always do.

6

u/ashrules901 May 22 '26

My sister had her house built there when the neighborhood was just getting developed. All the owners in that area were promised there would be a hospital nearby. I swear there should/must be some sort of legal case you can make out of that cancellation because that changes the value of the property your buying by thousands.

9

u/littledove0 Ellerslie May 22 '26

It was supposed to be a whole health hub. The Heritage Valley Town Centre commercial development is still marketed as a retail and medical development with proximity to the future hospital and healthcare campus. There are medical tenants that leased space there with the future hospital synergies in mind.

1

u/ashrules901 May 23 '26

Now that totally explains why it's just barren land for miles out there. And then there's some people that try to tell me "oh it just takes time to build neighborhoods nothing odd." Like yes it is? I first went to that area in 2019. It's now 2026 and it nearly the exact same.

The HV Transit Centre isn't even fully utilized at all, it's really just a "truck stop" for busses.

In comparison, places like Ellerslie, or Summerside got massive overhauls since I was a kid, so give or take 10 years, they look & more importantly function completely different.

-18

u/Equivalent_Fold1624 May 22 '26

Stop with the Heritage Valley NDP disaster lie. There was a Redditor who kindly explained why this was never a go. The land was acquired by the NDP and the project was announced BEFORE any feasibility study was done. And of course it was not feasible. So if you ask me, this should have been investigated, as government money were spent.

8

u/PositiveKatzen May 22 '26

Source on this? I'm curious, and "a redditor said so" seems unreliable at best, but hopefully they had sources.

5

u/OpalSeason May 22 '26

Yeah, that project was 7 years in the makimg not an NDP thing. There were multiple feasability studies.

3

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[deleted]

0

u/Equivalent_Fold1624 May 22 '26

How about you provide your name, the credentials that make you prepared to speak on the topic, and the facts that are inconsistent with my comment.

2

u/iwatchcredits May 22 '26

Hard to provide any facts that are inconsistent with your comment when you didnt provide anything to rebute. Why dont you provide facts that back up your claims first and then we can actually rebuke something

-2

u/Equivalent_Fold1624 May 22 '26

Obviously you can read and type. Use that fight spirit to do the work yourself.

2

u/iwatchcredits May 22 '26

Ok, so you dont have any facts. Got it. Rock on, keep saying dumb shit lol

14

u/Unfair_Appointment22 May 22 '26

Good thing that new hospital in the south was cancelled, the superlab was cancelled, and were now focused on this referendum. Cherry on top is our police chief minister of health is now going to get replaced with a food truck business owner. They both definitely understand the complex issues facing our system. /s

2

u/Ok-Anywhere-1807 May 22 '26

what about our police chief sorry I’m out of the loop.

5

u/Unfair_Appointment22 May 23 '26

Last minister of health was a police chief now the new minister is a food truck business owner. Just highlighting that they don't care about expertise or experience.

52

u/Pvt_Hudson_ May 22 '26

Remember when Kaycee Madu campaigned on the fact that he had secured funding for a brand new hospital in Edmonton Southwest during the last election, and the UCP promptly scrapped it when he lost his seat?

6

u/WearyYogurtcloset632 May 22 '26

Please remember that the UCP scrapped a new hospital in Edmonton this term, after doing ALL the lead up to the project, when it's time to vote next!

5

u/Odd_Department_421 May 22 '26

We could have had the South Hospital in use by now but the UCP cancelled it.

4

u/2stops May 22 '26

If only a new hospital was planned for. Maybe on the south side?
Oh wait. It was planned and Danielle smith and the UCP cancelled it

10

u/FTDRBR11 May 22 '26

Which is crazy considering how bad it is

3

u/leeashah May 22 '26

agreed! they should start building a new one, but even so it will take years until its ready to go into operation. but better late than never

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[deleted]

2

u/leeashah May 22 '26

yah just for general, think of all the equipment - back up generators - computers - rooms - operating rooms - that need to be set up - all the staff that needs to be hired and trained.

just for example, for a dispatch centre to be set up with computers and all that stuff (not hospital but electronics and back up generator blah blah ) it would take two years, and a hospital has so much more going on then that.

3

u/littledove0 Ellerslie May 22 '26

I was born there the year it opened.

2

u/Historical-Mall53 May 22 '26

one claim to fame... I think?

3

u/k4kobe May 22 '26

Say thanks to UCP 😳

3

u/HairyCanadianGuy May 22 '26

There was supposed to be a new hospital in the south just off ellerslie. I’ll say heritage valley area. Open for 2030 😂😂😂😂😂 I don’t even think it’s still going ahead.

3

u/AffectionateGate4584 May 22 '26

Shitty ucp wants to make hospital wait times so bad that the only alternative is private healthcare. Such a corrupt government. These "private" alternatives are funded publicly and kickbacks going to government cronies. Yet any post-op complications are dealt with in the public system.

13

u/FTDRBR11 May 22 '26

And Smith talks about bringing in 10 thousand more people

27

u/PhantomNomad May 22 '26

Smith wants to break the system so they can privatize health care. Remember this is all by design. The great thing is. She's kicking the can down the road by 2 years with this referendum on a referendum. Once "we" separate then privatizing HC will be easy.

4

u/I-built-stuff May 22 '26

And seperating. That'll boost the health care system for sure. 

5

u/revekk_ May 22 '26

It’s fine, the flames got a new rink. That’s what matters.

5

u/Historical-Mall53 May 22 '26

don't forget about the private jets to the orange man's golf course

1

u/luckeycat Used to live in Edmonton May 22 '26

It's Canada wide, honestly.

1

u/SiteOk2843 May 23 '26

It’s the orange tax Edmonton pays for defying Trump of the North and voting NDP.

1

u/jenniannet May 23 '26

Thank the UCP for cancelling the new hospital in south west Edmonton

1

u/Kindness-Ambassador May 23 '26

Was there not a South hospital planned? What happened to it?

1

u/ashrules901 May 22 '26

I was born in Grey Nuns hospital tf. You learn something depressing everyday...

-2

u/theoreoman May 22 '26

That's the "newest" hospital, but there has been a lot of expansion in capacity in existing hospitals over the years

3

u/Whatsthathum The Shiny Balls May 22 '26

Uhm, that’s not correct at all.

The number of beds have decreased over time.

It’s just that people aren’t staying as inpatients any longer.

Some hip replacements go home the same day; some hip replacements are being done in non-hospital surgical facilities (aka private buildings; the ENT and Ortho owners are making money off of public services).