Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
An Edmonton physician says hiring more doctors won’t solve chronic overcrowding at Grey Nuns Community Hospital.
The hospital’s five general medicine units have been operating above capacity — with more patients than beds — since at least 2024, said Dr. Greg Hrynchyshyn, an internal medicine specialist and president of the general internal medicine section of the Alberta Medical Association.
“There is an actual physical limit to what care can be provided in the facility,” he testified Thursday at a fatality inquiry into the death of a man in the Grey Nun’s emergency department.
Prashant Sreekumar, 44, died on Dec. 22, 2025, after waiting about eight hours in the ER to see a doctor about his chest pain.
Justice Randal Brandt of the Alberta Court of Justice will examine the circumstances surrounding Sreekumar’s death, and can make recommendations aimed at preventing similar ones.
Hrynchyshyn said it would be extremely rare to ever find open beds in the Grey Nuns’ medicine units.
Admission caps and overcrowding
The hospital has caps to ensure more patients aren’t admitted than doctors can safely oversee, and those were in place when Sreekumar died, Hrynchyshyn testified.
He said medical literature suggests one doctor can manage roughly 18 to 20 patients, depending on the complexity and severity of their symptoms.
Doctors are expected to care for all patients admitted to their units, even if the number exceeds this recommendation, he said.
Hrynchyshyn said the hospital plans to develop a high-intensity medical unit with more monitoring and nurses for patients with complex needs. It may also establish a fifth internal medicine team.
However, he said reducing medicine occupancy below 100 per cent would be difficult without building additional infrastructure.
Patients waiting to leave hospital
The inquiry heard that overcrowding also happens when patients who no longer require hospital care cannot be discharged because the services or accommodation they need are not available.
Hrynchyshyn estimated that 20 to 30 per cent of beds are occupied by such patients at any given time. Some require long-term care or supportive living, while others need rehabilitation, home-care services, supportive housing or specialized care for conditions such as brain injuries.
On weekends especially, he said, patients may face delays getting assessments, diagnostic imaging, medication support or home-care arrangements, delaying their discharge.
Expanding such services to operate seven days a week could help move patients through the system more efficiently, Hrynchyshyn said.
“We need the same supports on Saturday and Sunday as I have on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Continuing care facilities always have waitlists, an executive from Assisted Living Alberta testified Friday.
Typically, spaces are only freed up when a resident dies, said Kimberly Nickoriuk, the organization’s executive lead of client navigation and integration.
She said Assisted Living Alberta oversees home-care services, waitlist management and placement for about 31,000 continuing care spaces across the province.
When a hospital is overcapacity, its patients may be prioritized over those waiting in the community, Nickoriuk said.
Hospital occupancy continues to rise
The Grey Nuns’ overall occupancy was about 101 per cent in 2025, and has gone up since then, a hospital official testified Friday.
Lana Chivers, a senior program officer with Covenant Health who oversees emergency care at Edmonton’s Grey Nuns and Misericordia hospitals, cited similar issues as other witnesses for bed scarcity and discharge delays.
On Wednesday, a veteran ER doctor said Alberta’s emergency care system is in a prolonged crisis.
Dr. Warren Thirsk said Edmonton’s population has grown substantially during his 25-year career, with no corresponding expansion of hospital infrastructure.
He said stories like Sreekumar’s are more common than the public realizes, but doctors can’t speak publicly about them because of patient confidentiality.
Sreekumar’s family went public about his death, Thirsk said, bringing attention to the circumstances surrounding his wait for care.
The inquiry is adjourned until December, when more witnesses are expected to testify.
