Almost one in five Albertans who go to the emergency room leave before receiving care, according to a new report by Alberta doctors, Read More
The total, 18 per cent, is about double the 8.5 per cent of Canadians leaving the emergency room without receiving care
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The total, 18 per cent, is about double the 8.5 per cent of Canadians leaving the emergency room without receiving care
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Almost one in five Albertans who go to the emergency room leave before receiving care, according to a new report by Alberta doctors,
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The Alberta Medical Association, the province’s organization of doctors, released the State of Health Care 2025 report card on Friday.
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AMA president Dr. Shelley Duggan called the metric “very troubling.”
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Twenty-seven per cent of those surveyed visited an emergency department in the past year, with 58 per cent rating timeliness as poor and 18 per cent leaving before receiving care.
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“We certainly are seeing significant wait times in the emergency department,” Duggan said.
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“People are going there, not necessarily with a life-threatening illness at the time, but they’re presenting there, and perhaps they don’t have a family doctor to look after them, and that’s why they’re going to the emergency department,” Duggan said.
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While not all ailments sending people to emergency have grave consequences if untreated, a physician is the best person to make that call, Duggan said.
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“It’s concerning because perhaps people did come with what really was something serious and which could have significant consequences of leaving without being seen,” Duggan said.
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Report lacking data: Province
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The Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health Services took exception to the report, saying the survey’s sample size of 1,120 respondents doesn’t reflect the full range of patient experiences or health data across Alberta, and isn’t a credible source of health data.
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In contrast, the latest quarterly data from Health Quality Alberta (HQA) showed only two hospitals in Alberta reporting a “left-without-being-seen” rate of 18 per cent or higher, with most hospitals reporting rates “well below that level.”
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Emergency wait times haven’t improved over 5 years
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Province unveils family physician pay model
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“The average left-without-being-seen rate in Alberta’s top 16 hospitals is 10 per cent and is comparable to other provincial data,” the ministry said, pointing to efforts to further improve the metric.
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“Delays in Alberta’s emergency departments are shorter than in other large provinces and we are one of the top performers in the country — but that’s still not good enough,” the statement read.
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“We are taking action to reduce wait times by adding hospital beds, expanding assisted-living capacity for patients awaiting transition to more appropriate care settings, and investing in new urgent care centres across the province to provide alternatives when emergency care isn’t required.”
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The growth in the medical workforce across disciplines is “strong and encouraging,” the ministry said, noting a net annual gain of 317 doctors, with year-over-year growth in all zones.
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NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman said in a statement that it’s “ unacceptable that so many Albertans are without access to a family doctor, and emergency room wait times remain dangerously high, with patients simply getting up and leaving because the wait is so long.”
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Albertans without care providers
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Eighteen per cent of adult Albertans do not have a family doctor.
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Ten per cent are actively seeking a family care provider, and four per cent use walk-in clinics as their primary care option.
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Duggan estimated eight per cent of Albertans see a nurse practitioner, either in team practice or, currently less common, in solo family care practice.
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Forty-four per cent saw a specialist in the past year, but 42 per cent of those rated the wait for an appointment as poor.
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Nineteen per cent of those surveyed are currently on a specialist wait list.
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“Overwhelmingly, when you get in to see a physician, people are happy with the care that they’re getting, but it’s that accessing the care, getting in for the first time, that tends to be a significant barrier,” Duggan said.
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Only 54 per cent of those with a family doctor can usually get an appointment when needed, the report showed. Wait times in walk-in clinics and emergency departments are frequently rated as “poor.”
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On the upside, family doctors received strong ratings, with 83 per cent of those surveyed describing their last visit as very good or excellent.
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Walk-in clinics and urgent care also receive positive care quality ratings, despite wait times and access issues, the report found.
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For the province’s health care system, usage and satisfaction are both fairly high, with 90 per cent of Albertans using the health care system in the past year. Ffamily physicians, medical labs and diagnostics are the most common uses.
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Seventy-five per cent are satisfied with their most recent health care experience.
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“Satisfaction is higher among those with a family doctor and correlates with timely access. This reflects the value of continuity of care in improving patient outcomes and creating more positive patient experiences,” the report concluded.
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Patients rated hospital and acute specialty care as excellent, but patients are waiting for access in a strained acute care system, the report found.
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The good news: doctors opt in
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The good news is that help is on the way for increasing the number of family physicians in the province.
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“We are somewhat optimistic now with having introduced the new family medicine pay model, that maybe when we repeat this next year, we will see some improvement,” Duggan said.
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The new physician pay model is gaining adoption among family doctors, she said, with more than half of eligible physicians signing on in the three months since it was introduced.
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“We’re not hearing negatives from our physicians. They’re telling us that this is good, that they’re sustaining their practices,” she said.
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After years of wrangling, the new pay model finally adopted in April has three parts: physicians are paid something for each patient visit, they’re reimbursed for time spent managing their practice — reviewing results, filling out forms, making referrals — and they’re paid for the size and complexity of their patient panel, which needs to have at least 500 patients to qualify for the model.
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Duggan estimates that about 1,800 of the province’s family physicians have a panel size of more than 500 patients. More than half of those have either already opted into the system or have expressed interest in joining.
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This has staunched the flow of doctors leaving the province for other places with similar pay systems, Duggan said.
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“We are hopeful that maybe we can not only prevent doctors from not only leaving Alberta, but to attract doctors to come into the province,” she said.
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“We are optimistic, from what we’re hearing, that physicians are happy with that model.”
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