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Alberta’s hospitals and emergency rooms are in a crisis
By Lethbridge Herald on January 23, 2026.
Rob Miyashiro- AT THE LEGISLATURE
Doctors, patients, and health-care advocates have been raising the alarm about our hospitals and emergency rooms for weeks, and still, this government is not acting with the urgency required.
Last week, a report identified six deaths, and 30 “critical near misses”, in emergency waiting rooms in the first two weeks of 2026. This report from emergency department physicians was compiled with anonymized stories, as Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid pointed out, because doctors are not violating privacy law when discussing these cases “because there are so many similar ones”. Think about that statement and let it sink in. There are so many cases of people suffering, and even dying, in the hallways and waiting rooms of emergency departments that doctors can share stories without violating patient privacy. Three dozen patients in two weeks either died, or nearly did, because the emergency departments are under tremendous strain.
Both President Dr. Warren Thirsk and President-Elect Dr. Paul Parks of the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency medicine section, contributed to the report and they encouraged family members to ensure their sick or injured family members are accompanied to Emergency Departments so that they can advocate and potentially be witnesses in the case of a death. Dr Parks told the Calgary Herald that more families need to come forward, like the family of an Edmonton man who died in late December and made national news, “I think we need more and more of them to come out, because that’s the only way. The government’s not listening.”
The government is not listening. That from an emergency room physician on the front lines of the health care crisis and an advocate for other physicians. The staff of emergency departments, the physicians, nurses, and support team, are doing their best every day but they are begging the government to listen. Patients are contacting my office with heartbreaking stories and begging their government to listen.
I can assure you that I am listening, and the members of the Alberta New Democrat caucus are listening. Earlier this week we called on the UCP government to act immediately.
Here is what Naheed Nenshi and the Alberta New Democrat caucus has asked the UCP to do immediately:
1. Declare a state of emergency for Alberta’s emergency rooms.
Currently operating well above 100% capacity and with unsafe conditions for many, this declaration should remain in place until each hospital is below
100% planned capacity with dedicated overflow beds staffed and funded. By finally
defining this situation as an emergency, it would signal to all parties involved that crisis-level interventions, solutions, actions, and decision-making should be considered and prioritized.
2. Reinstate a central command for coordination and decision-making. After dismantling AHS into four separate agencies with four separate ministers, frontline workers are sounding the alarm around a lack of clear decision-making without a single leadership team or agency responsible. A strict command structure with clear decision management protocols (similar to what would have occurred under a single agency) needs to be reinstated immediately.
3. Reconvene the legislature to hold an emergency debate. Albertans know this crisis is happening, and they need their legislators to be accountable. By reconvening the legislature, the government could provide regular updates on the progress being made, while the opposition can hold the government accountable to them.
In announcing this call to action, Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi explained the urgency: “Albertans need to see real action now… we are calling on the UCP to admit we are in a crisis and emergency. We must listen to the frontline workers, doctors, health- care advocates and patients who are speaking up and showing us the reality of our health care system as the UCP dismantles AHS in front of us. More and sustained action will be needed before this gets better. Albertans’ lives depend on it.”
The government’s response to the report from the AMA, and the calls to admit we are in a crisis right now, has been weak. Matt Jones, Minister of Hospital and Surgical Services offered condolences to family members of those who have died and added “it is an unfortunate reality that sick and frail people do access care in hospitals.” (I am not sure who he expects would be accessing care in hospitals if not for people who are sick and frail.)
The government also announced that renovations would soon complete at the Peter Lougheed Hospital ER in Calgary. It is a start. But the renos at the ER in Peter Lougheed Hospital will add 100 beds. We need far more than that and we need to ensure that it is not just paying for infrastructure like a bed and a room but the critically important people who will work to save patients!
The UCP government must act now. I am interested in hearing your stories from the ERs in Southern Alberta so please reach out. I can be reached at lethbridge.west@assembly.ab.ca or at 403-329-4644.
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it is utterly vexing that for private health care institutions can be run at massive profit, but, somehow, the public accepts public health being run into the ground. we have had numerous comprehensive and very expensive commission studies, with many fixes for public health provided, only to have the findings shelved. it is as though govts want to do their best to have reason to foment more and more for profit outcomes, than they truly wish to ensure not for profit public health care.
so, we always seem to default to the same old model and approaches: nepotism, waste, neglect, ineptitude…one example is the idea to spend idiotic fortunes on the latest meds coming from big pharm, sucking the lifeblood from our system. a massive pocket liner, and suckout from our system. shortages of doctors and nurses, because our system will not allow professionals trained at quality institutions to be recognised here in reasonable time and without ridiculous hurdles. as well, perhaps we do not need to have the very latest, most over the top expensive equipment, and it would be better to wait until the costs come down.
perhaps we had better go back to how medicare began, with it being funded from specific revenues as opposed to being a part of our slush fund approach.
thus, perhaps we can use our sundry lotteries as a source of revenue; liquor and drug and tobacco taxes, which are currently massive relative to the base cost of those products…but, whatever means of funding we come to rely on, nothing will work should we continue to keep this foolish model alive.
we need a single tier, public health system, and it needs to be remedied. most important, it can be saved, as the private system has shown there is indeed a massive wiggle room between a break even approach and one that returns big profits. surely, even pathetic govt can get this right.
Go sit in emergency for a week and get back to us. Just did and you’ll be surprised at the noise you, Nenshi and Hoffman are making
Let’s see if I have this right – you sat in the emergency department for week? If so, you’ve reinforced Mr. Miyashiro’s point.
Go see for yourself. Your comment is idiotic FYI casual observer.
A casual observer, so you say. I simply responded to what you actually wrote. How can I be criticized or held responsible for your sloppy writing?
And since we’re doing the FYI thing, during the COVID pandemic, I went to the ER with a fever and an infection following hip-replacement surgery. I booked in at 6:00 PM and wasn’t seen by a doctor until around 7:00 AM the following day.
When I was finally seen by one of the ER docs, she apologized, saying they were dealing with staff shortages. Not sure things have improved a whole lot. But I think that’s the government’s plan to bleed the public system so folks will accept more private, for profit, providers.
I think it is imperative for all to go hang around emergency for a day or two. Especially the MLA from Lethbridge West. Look we all know that this board is an an NDP echo chamber. Go find out for yourself and quit espousing Nenshi vitriol and Hoffman talking points Broaden your horizons.
Many years ago I was taught not to generalize on the basis of one’s own experience or observations, but to rely on aggregate data. Maybe you missed that class.
Keep sounding the alarm, Rob.
I had the unfortunate experience of an extensive wait in the Chinook emergency this past September. While shopping my legs gave out totally and I collapsed twice. Wife drove me to emerg where I clearly explained to the triage nurse that my systems were identical to several previous incidents which were diagnosed as total blockage of main artery feeding both legs. The nurse was either bored, tired or inexperienced but he sent me over to registration. There were about a dozen other patients in the holding room. 6 to 7 hours later everyone of them were treated before me. Several were in no obvious life threatening condition as I noticed one had a sore and and another complained about their wrist. The triage nurse had failed miserably to properly prioritize my condition. Once rhe doctor saw me I immediately had a ct scan and was ambulanced to Calgary where that nite I had one stent put in and another the next day. This personal experience and the deaths of several people waiting in emergency rooms shows to me that our medical system needs a major fix and the UCP is failing us.