Dear Members,
We’ve started receiving submissions through Report My Story — a secure, easy-to-use text line (587-401-9591) where AMA members share real experiences from daily practice. These first stories reveal a health care system stretched beyond its limits, with overwhelmed acute care, ongoing physician shortages and broken processes — all while dedicated colleagues try to hold things together. For those who submit, we hope it helps to know someone is listening.
- An 89-year-old woman was admitted for the fourth time in two months, each due to respiratory failure. She passed away in a crowded emergency room after waiting over 24 hours for specialist care. The space was too cramped for many of her family members to be with her in her final moments.
- A local physician admitted a woman with recurrent bloodstream infections from drug-resistant urinary bacteria, only treatable with IV antibiotics. The physician recommended a home urine kit and early oral antibiotic initiation at symptom onset to prevent sepsis, plus starting topical vaginal estrogen to lower UTI risk in postmenopausal women. The physician couldn’t order outpatient labs or estrogen due to lack of continuity — she had no family doctor, and the physician had no outpatient practice. Referral to Infectious Diseases would have been recommended, but access is limited. Half the patients this physician saw that week had no family doctor, complicating follow-up and continuity of care.
- An unvaccinated child arrived at the ER critically ill with measles, complicated with pneumonia, pneumonitis, tachycardia and hypotension. He was transferred to the pediatric ICU, requiring intensive one-on-one nursing and treatment in a reverse-air-flow isolation room, which was later decommissioned for cleaning. The parents were vaccinated, but the child — and likely siblings — were not. The mother seemed unaware of how severe measles can be.
- The emergency department was stretched thin, with many elderly patients lacking proper support. One tough case involved a dementia patient whose care home wouldn’t take her back. The doctor was pushed to keep her overnight in an unsuitable area. Thankfully, her family helped — but not every patient is that lucky.
- The regional specialized surgical program, part of Facilitated Access to Specialist Treatment, had over 1,800 patients waiting for consultation with little progress over two years. A physician attempted to have referrals paused due to backlog, but they continued. Despite having several nurses assigned to manage the system, their roles remain unclear. A physician working in a neighbouring zone reported being made aware of this issue a year ago and has since assessed several hundred patients through the program. However, they’re unable to manage certain conditions locally due to the lack of appropriate clinic support — a gap they attribute to administrative barriers.
- A long-retired physician, was recently informed that his wait for a urology consult would be three years. Not acceptable, he feels.
Thank you to the members who have contributed stories so far. They help us to communicate the real-life state of the system, they power our advocacy. Please put the number in your phone’s contact list and help the AMA see what you see. Advocacy needs fuel.
587-401-9591
Use the QR code to start a text message. The number will be added for you.
Sincerely,
Shelley Duggan, MD, FRCPC
President, Alberta Medical Association
Thank you for collecting these events and publishing them so the public is really able to hear what is going on in our province. One can only hope the government will step up instead of constantly sweeping it under the rug. These are people’s lives and they don’t seem to renew it seriously.
It is very frustrating to find a family Physician. With our aging population some people have no choice but to find private practices but that costs money. Many people cannot afford that option. I have had so many “supposed” family doctors over the past 20 years which doesn’t feel right. I found it a problem to keep a family doctor in north western Alberta. I relocated to the city for a year but only had a doctor who just was in it to be told what I thought was my issues and he prescribed the wrong medication. I recently lived in southern Alberta and it isn’t much better having to drive out of my area one hour to find somebody who accepts new patients but she wasn’t a good doctor I could tell she’s only in it “for the money” We can have limited amount of physicians in Alberta and the quality of the care is not adequate considering we live in a first world country. Something needs to change. Advocacy for improvement will not cease but money needs to be put into outlets hospital staffing, nursing, doctor shortages and lack of care. Quality versus quantity should be addressed and finding a solution will not be easy. I’m of the middle age range and hope that things get better before worse than they already are.
My blood sample was taken at the ER. After hours of waiting for the result I was told that my blood needs to be drawn again because the first sample never reached the lab. Later that evening I saw the vials labelled with my name at the nurse\'s station, unattended. What went wrong? I have not received an answer to date. My wait time at the ER was 9 hours.