By Sheldon Spackman

Temporary staff shortages making longer wait times at Red Deer’s ER

Jun 24, 2018 | 10:10 AM

Temporary staffing shortages have made for some longer than normal wait times in the emergency room of the Red Deer Regional Hospital this weekend.

According to Alberta Health Services Officials, the scheduling shortages began Friday night and are mainly from temporary staff positions not being filled as of yet.

Officials say an interim plan is currently in place to deal with the shortage, as staff that are on-call or can temporarily be spared from other departments at the hospital are stepping in to help.

They add however that no one is being turned away, with patients in need of more critical care staying in Red Deer and those in need of less critical care in some cases being transferred to Innisfail or Ponoka which is a normal practice they point out and not specific to the current situation.

AHS officials anticipate normal staffing levels to be back in place for Monday but in the meantime, slightly longer than normal wait times in the emergency room are still expected for Sunday.

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Rob Swanson, Executive Director for Red Deer Regional Hospital says the primary thing to make note of is that all patients coming into Red Deer’s energency room are receiving the appropriate care.

“We haven’t diverted anyone away from the facility,” says Swanson. “We prioritize according to the urgency of the medical need as well. This is a temporary, internal thing and at this point there is certainly no risk to patient safety.”

“A piece of this I think is just really related to a number of challenges that are coming in,” he adds. “Summer vacations, compounding with some vacancies as well, it does create times when we are leaner than we typically are but again I think the key thing is that we are managing the care effectively and patients are not at-risk.”