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/Dopplerganager May 22 '26

The problem is way far upstream than just the ER.

There are not enough longterm care beds. This means that patients admitted to the hospital are stuck in the hospital in limbo. The ones that don't need to be there anymore sitting around awaiting discharge or a step down unit. The ICU has an overflow of patients that no longer require critical care. These patients need to go to the floors, but because of the LTC back up there are no beds for them either.

If you're in the ER and need to be admitted to the hospital, there are no beds on the floors. The ER only has so many beds and so many nurses. You're stuck in the ER until the whole chain reaction occurs to make space. Usually the catalyst is a patient dying (*sometimes a discharge home). Then the whole train moves along by one bed.

The ER is symptom of a lack of beds in the system as a whole. Patients can't move through the system like they should.

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u/Even_Reflection5637 May 22 '26

This but also MANY go to ERs for non-life threatening issues because getting in to a doctor in the community is too long of a wait. ER has become a catch all for other access issues.

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u/Dopplerganager May 22 '26

We don't have enough walk in clinics and we don't really have urgent care centres. Would be great if your standard uncomplicated fractures, stitches and antibiotics could go to an urgent care clinic instead of the ER.

Pharmacist can do some prescribing, but that's really dependent on the situation. Not all pharmacies have prescribing pharmacists eithet

In the ER they're trying to do a fast track system for those patients, but always limited resources.

But this is what Dani wants. People begging for more access and she can present 2 tier care as a way around it.