Alberta doctors sounding alarm on capacity – again

Alberta doctors are once again raising concerns about too many patients and too few beds and staff members.

The Alberta Medical Association (AMA) is asking the government to take immediate measures to prevent the situation from getting worse.

“Our system is failing and eventually the hospitals just don’t have that capacity,” said Dr. Troy Pederson, the president of the AMA section of internal medicine.

Pederson says General Internal Medicine (GIM) physicians – part of specialized teams able to tackle complex medical needs – are struggling to keep up with demand.

“When the GIM goes down, so does the hospital system,” he said. “We’re now at a point where many hospital GIM teams have got both their fingers and toes to plug these holes and we no longer have the capacity to help.”

The AMA is blaming the province for “escalating the crisis,” calling for immediate action.

“We gave government in the fall of last year a hospital stabilization plan that clearly highlighted and said these some of the struggles that we’re gonna have,” said AMA president Dr. Paul Parks. “And unfortunately, the government has not moved at all. Not one step on that plan.

“This isn’t just about the sick patients admitted that are currently in hospital. Because if we can’t get them out to another long-term care, all the new patients, surgical patients, cancer patients… our emergencies are overflowing.”

Alberta Health Services says recruiting doctors is difficult internationally. In a statement to CityNews, AHS says “since 2019/20, the general internal medicine workforce in Alberta has grown by roughly 11 per cent, and individual zones manage workforce planning to address diverse practices and local needs.”

But the AMA is calling for more is in the middle of negotiating with the province to bring in more physicians and update after-hours incentives.

“The most pressing concern at hospitals that are imminently failing is going to be what are we doing to support the care of patients after hours,” Pederson explained.

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In response, the office of the health minister tells CityNews: “We already incentivize after-hours care. In 2023-24, physicians received approximately $200 million total in after-hours time premiums.”

The AMA feels those incentives should not only be offered to doctors, but other health-care professionals as well.

“We need to look at not just after hours and weekend coverage for physicians to be incentivized, but maybe for some of these other Allied Health people to be incentivized,” Pederson said. “Because it’s odd to all of us that the hospital has a weekend. It doesn’t.”