Rise in respiratory illnesses trigger long wait times at Alberta Children’s Hospital, Stollery

With respiratory illnesses on the rise, wait times are also at Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

As of Monday afternoon, the wait time was about four hours, but that doesn’t represent the extraordinarily long times some patients have seen — and officials say we may not have peaked yet.

“We are experiencing an early start to the respiratory illness season and a sharp increase in the number of patients in emergency,” said James Wood, a spokesperson for Alberta Health Services.

“We expect to see winter peak levels over the next few weeks.”

“The numbers may be higher than in recent years, in part due to the recovery of common infections that have been suppressed for the past two years. We are seeing an early and sharp increase in flu activity in Alberta with 146 hospitalizations due to flu since late August 13 of them were admitted to intensive care units (ICU).”

Of these hospitalizations, 46 were in children younger than nine years old.

Since the surge, there have been more than 300 daily visits to the children’s hospital emergency room – compared to about 180-220 before the recent surge.

The Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton is also seeing rising wait times and high patient loads.

To help combat the crowds, AHS said several steps are being taken.

“We are taking action at both children’s hospitals to relieve pressure and improve access to care. At ACH, we have opened the site assignment position to support our frontline teams,” said Wood.

“We are working to open our short-stay unit on weekends and are looking at other areas within the hospital to provide care and assessment for ED and other inpatients.”

Pediatric ICUs at both ACH and the Stollery are close to 100 percent capacity and officials said they may need to exceed 100 percent of normal beds.

AHS also asks that only one caregiver accompany a child to the hospital.

While workers try to keep waiting times low, Dr. Stephen Freedman at the University of Calgary noted that staff are feeling the pressure.

“We are not satisfied with that. We are doing everything we can and our staff, our nurses have been incredible and everyone is trying to offer new solutions every week to manage all the children and the volume in acuity,” said Dr. Freedman said.

“It’s a battle because everyone is working at their maximum.”

With the high number of illnesses, AHS is urging parents to get their children vaccinated with both flu and COVID shots.

They also ask parents to continue good infection control practices, such as hand washing and staying away from others when they are sick.

Not on the list of AHS recommendations? Wear a mask.

School officials estimate more than three-quarters of Edmonton’s public schools have seen recent absenteeism rates of more than 10 per cent, enough to prompt an AHS investigation into an infectious disease outbreak. About 10 percent or more of students in Calgary have been absent in recent days.

Despite the clear medical evidence that masking works to help prevent the spread of respiratory illness, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reiterated Monday that the province will not allow any further masking mandate of children in Alberta’s K-12 education system.

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Alberta premier blames RSV surge on lockdowns and AHS; address medication shortage

Instead, Smith commented on the wait times on Monday, noting that she would do “everything she can” to get children seen by medical specialists as soon as possible.

She also said she will work to address the children’s medication shortage, which has left parents without children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen since the summer.

“I’m going to do what I can to make sure that they have the medication that they need and that if, heaven forbid, someone needs to go to the hospital, that they don’t wait an inordinately long period of time to get them. saw child,” Smith said.

Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley shared a screenshot on Instagram Monday of the Alberta Health Services hospital wait times website, showing the ACH wait time exceeding 15 hours.

NDP health critic David Shepherd said he is calling on the UCP to implement an emergency action plan to properly staff both the Alberta Children’s Hospital and the Stollery to reduce wait times.

“Seventeen hours is simply nowhere near acceptable,” Shepherd said.

“These are children. They are sick. They deserve access to health care.

“Their parents should be able to obtain the medicine they need to reduce their pain and they should be assured that there is capacity at their local hospital should things take a turn for the worse.”

– With files from The Canadian Press

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