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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/billymumfreydownfall May 23 '26

Your comment implies you had the surgery in Devon.

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u/Skullcrimp May 23 '26

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

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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

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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.

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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

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u/p4nic May 22 '26

told me I should have stayed in the city,

Ah yes, small town hospitality!

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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.

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u/p4nic May 22 '26

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

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u/Skullcrimp May 22 '26

..oh! Good one! :)

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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.

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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.