Some doctors are questioning why Alberta isn’t cancelling more surgeries to free up hospital beds and relieve pressure on struggling emergency rooms.
According to health officials, six non-emergency surgeries have been rescheduled across the province this month due to hospital capacity problems.
Physicians have been raising the alarm for weeks about overcrowding in emergency rooms and have called for the province to declare a state of emergency to address the situation.
“We are absolutely in an unmitigated disaster,” said Dr. Paul Parks, president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency medicine section.
Doctors say many ERs are filled with patients who are already admitted to hospital but can’t be moved to the wards because there are no available beds, triggering over-crowding and long waits.
“If we could cancel some scheduled surgeries, deploy some of those admitted emerg patients into surgical beds in the hospital, we could get some breathing room and save some lives,” said Parks.
The Alberta government has ordered a review after a man died an Edmonton emergency room in December, after allegedly waiting nearly eight hours to see a physician.
Edmonton hospitals are under the most strain, according to Parks. But he said Calgary facilities are also under pressure.
Dr. Braden Manns, a former interim vice-president with Alberta Health Services, described the number of surgeries cancelled this month as “surprisingly low.”
“Six seems like a very small number of surgeries to have cancelled in a situation where you have chock-a-block emergency rooms,” said Manns, a professor of medicine and health policy at the University of Calgary.
And he questioned whether the numbers provided to CBC News accurately capture the situation.
“If that’s true then I guess we’ve made a conscious decision that we’re not cancelling surgeries for emergency room gridlock issues,” he said.
Health officials have a limited number of tactics to help relieve pressure in hospitals, including transferring patients out of the zone, treating people in hallways and boosting homecare supports to keep people at home longer, according to Manns.
Delaying elective surgeries is a last resort, he noted, but it can work to free up beds and reduce ER bottlenecks.
“I guess I would have thought that we would be seeing more cancellations of elective surgeries simply to try to help the emergency rooms out so that we avoid more situations like we saw with that young man who died over the holiday season.”
Both doctors said in previous years, when hospitals have struggled with capacity problems, more surgeries would have been postponed by now.
No emergency surgeries to be cancelled
According to Acute Care Alberta, one of four new provincial health agencies, six non-emergent surgeries have been rescheduled in January, as of Friday morning. That number includes surgeries that were slated to occur during that time period.
“Acute Care Alberta continues to work closely with service delivery organizations like AHS and Covenant Health to support individual sites in making decisions regarding patient load and procedures like surgery,” spokesperson Jennifer Vanderlaan said in an emailed statement.
“It is critical to note that no emergency surgeries, including critical cancer and pediatric cases, will be delayed.”
The agency said 318,920 surgeries were performed across Alberta during the 2024 -2025 fiscal year.
“We recognize and appreciate that any cancellation impacts patients and families,” Vanderlaan said. “All available clinical staff are working tirelessly to care for patients across the province.”
A spokesperson for the Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services Matt Jones said an early and unusually large flu spike in mid-December added pressure to hospitals, with more patients requiring care and hospitalization.
“We are cautiously optimistic that demand may ease as cases in the community stabilize especially in Calgary and Edmonton, but hospitals will remain busy throughout the season,” said press secretary Kyle Warner in an emailed statement.
Overcapacity protocols are in place, surge beds have been added, staffing has been increased and virtual hospital supports have been added, he noted.
Health system changes
Parks said in the past, when AHS acted as the single health authority, it coordinated care across the province.
“They would have had a very good picture of what was going on, they would have heard the frontline healthcare leaders… pleading for help and they absolutely would have cancelled scheduled surgeries and a lot more of them by now,” he said.
The government’s health restructuring led to the creation of four health ministers, four main provincial health agencies and seven regional health corridors in the province. Premier Danielle Smith has also vowed to return decision making authority to individual hospitals.
Alberta Health Services is now relegated to the role of hospital provider, alongside organizations like Covenant Health, and reports to Acute Care Alberta.
“Right now there is no authority that can actually do this in a coordinated manner,” said Parks.
For its part, the Alberta government said there’s been no policy change related to surgery cancellations, and it insisted provincial oversight is in place.
“Decisions about surgical scheduling are made by clinical teams at individual sites based on real-time conditions, supported by provincial coordination through Acute Care Alberta,” said Warner.
“This includes daily cross-provider meetings, shared dashboards, and twice-daily reporting to ensure system-wide alignment.”
Warner said the province is working to reschedule procedures as quickly as possible.
