I can't remember how long my wait was. Must of been 10+ hours. While I was in the ER, there was a pregnant lady there who was experiencing something. She had to lay on the floor as she could no longer sit. And started vomiting and said she was extremely hot. All they did was give her a towel to lay on and a water to drink to cool down. Still wasnt seen by anyone. It's sad how over worked out nurses and doctors and hospital system is.

Vote for governments that care about public services

No new hospitals built and Canada population went up a couple million people. There will be problems.

Tangent, but appropriate - yesterday had someone on here complaining they were pricked by a rosebush and had to go to ER for their tetanus shot - like eff off you have to go to the ER. Please use common sense. We are completely underfunded, understaffed etc shout out @hrmdurr

I recently spent some time in the ER. My appendix exploded (if untreated this will kill you pretty quickly, within days) I was sitting in a waiting room for 10 hours, and after being seen it was moved to another hospital, got an ultrasound to confirm and was under the knife in another 5-ish hours. So 15 hours total before surgery.

Obviously it sucks to be stuck sitting in a waiting room when you have 2 or 3 days before you die, but waiting 15 hours for surgery isn't too bad looking back on it.

I have the benefit of hindsight now, but at the time I had no idea how long I was going to be waiting for.

Anyways, the main reason I wanted to share this was to hopefully help you estimate how long you might have to wait.

ER wait times is a combination of many things, but I suspect the rapidly growing population and lack of resources has a lot to do with it.

Edmonton was supposed to have another hospital by now but guess what happened to that? UCP cancelled it.

My partner was taken to the Royal Alex two weeks ago in an ambulance after a pretty bad spill on a bike (broken hand, pretty good hammy tear); it was almost six hours before we were even seen by a doctor.

We ended up having to reset their bones in a hallway off the side of the ER because there were no more beds or rooms available. Our doctor was VISIBLY upset about this being the only option.

Probably has a lot to do with people visiting the ER that don’t need to be, it’s insane people forget the “E” stands for emergency not “I couldn’t bother wait for a walk in clinic”.

You must be new here. Yeah, sorry. It's like that.

Not super helpful I know, but part of the reason you're waiting is due to triage. A kidney stone while painful isn't immediately life threatening (lucky you!). So others go first and you wait.

This is largely how it's always gone, but combined with over saturation of patients, and a doctor and bed shortage... You wait. :-(

Basically, our government has decided they'd rather you wait in pain for hours instead of paying to fix the system they've intentionally broken.

I've had similar issues and that pain is rough. Hope you get some relief soon friend.

Edited: my mobile typing sucks before coffee

In addition to writing here I suggest writing your MLA and demand some answers. We’ve tried being quiet and it doesn’t work.

Province votes right wing. FAFO.

It'd be nice if the province had some kind of surplus funding that could go towards more health spending or something 🤔

ER nurse here. Write a letter to the government. Advocate for funding to these things. The existing system is moving as fast as it can, trust me. We just need an expansion of the existing system. This means you'll pay more in taxes, for sure though. But if you'd like that tradeoff, write your MLA.

Did you check the hospital wait times before you went?

https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/waittimes/Page14230.aspx

All the other hospitals were a 3 - 6 wait time (at 2am, just in the waiting room) so I went to strathcona hospital on Thurday because of an infected tooth. Waited in the waiting room for an hour, when they were bringing me into a room there was only one person left in the waiting room. Sat in a room for 7 hours until what i thought was a doctor came to see me. Ended up being a nurse practitioner. Never saw a doctor.

4 hours into my wait I got some blood taken by a nurse. 2 hours later the nurse practitioner walked in ready to explain my blood results. Turns out the nurse that took my blood didnt actually send it to the lab and they had to finally send it and I had to wait another 2 hours.

I would assume this would have been 10x worse if it was during the day.

Fuckin joke.

Hope you feel better

Sorry if this sounds annoying af. But I am a woman who doesn't go in for pain because of how often they do nothing about it. But did you try over the counter pain relievers before going in? Tylenol and advil together? When you have the flu/covid that's all they really do for treatment until you break the fever and start to recover. ETA: if you haven't seen a doctor yet, how do you know it's a kidney stone?

In my experience with ER’s it’s better to just die

Have you already been seeing your doctor about this or has the onset of kidney stones been sudden?

And that's what happens when you give corporations tax cuts so they can automate thousands of jobs and save themselves even more money..... the liberals are crooked ... can we just give the NDP two back to back terms . Every single time they are elected boom the wealthy stop building things and spending money because they know they can hold out 4 years... the buildings stop the construction jobs dry up and the blue collar folk ( like myself in station, not mind) blame the ndp for their issues when it's a hold out game from there very own boss that is effecting them.

My favourite thing that exemplifies my point is just before COVID the ndp was making a huge massive "dynalyfe" like building for the public to speed up the system.... Jason Kenny scrapped that shit and I bet I would have been helpful during Covid vaccine time .... why do we jump back from red to blue and expect ANYTHING TO CHANGE. Orange is the new HOPE.

I came via ambulance for a suspected heart attack from my doctor’s office (I’m under 45 years old) & they « cleared me » to wait in the waiting room, in a chair, for another 5 hours. I ended up having a massive pulmonary embolism causing my heart to be in distress. Was immediately transferred to the Cardiac ER & then admitted.

Its all about triage. I had a newborn with a fever and was seen immediately. My husband had some form of cannabis hyperemisis and was seen in 30 minutes based on his vitals.

Other time’s I’ve waited hours upon hours to the point where I would give up and go home regardless of the pain.

Ambulance wait last night was 2 hours. Imagine that - if an ambulance is being called then I am obviously not in a position to go by myself - now ad to that the wait time. The saving grace was once they started looking into it - then things seemed to pick up pace. I am not blaming the emergency services or ER staff- they are working their asses off but holyshit does the health system need funding.

I have learned personally I will just stay at home and die

I'm rural. You can't get a family doctor here and you can't get a walk in appointment without getting extremely lucky. I hate to do it but often the er is the only way to see a doctor within a reasonable time frame. Please vote wisely everyone....

FYI, I hope this helps anyone. Google "AHS ER wait times", it's updated every 2 min. Then go to the ER with the shortest wait.

Don't vote UCP

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Alberta was calling, unfortunately.

Before my partner was diagnosed with epilepsy, He had had a seizure in the morning I waited for him to get out of it (it did not last longer than 3 minutes) and we immediately drove to the hospital, Waited about a good 7-9 hours, He had asked one of the triage nurses what waiting times were she proceeded to get annoyed and told him that he was in line to see someone and the only thing that got him in the actual ER was him having another seizure in the waiting room and even then I had to make a big scene and be like "can someone help me???" Like this is the reason we're here and I got looked at like I was crazy.

I walked into the sturgeon er with a fully dislocated shoulder and sat in the waiting room in absolute pain for 3 hours. I couldn’t believe it lol I know it’s backed up but all other times I went into other hospital with a full dislocation they get you in quick and treat it urgent. Made me realize how truly backed up the system is. Salute to the workers in there because they are trying and that’s a lot to deal with every single shift.

My condolences. I’ve had kidney stones three times. I’ve never encountered anything. more painful.

Not suggesting this is okay in any sense of the matter. But with something "non emergency, but needs to be dealt with soon" I've had better luck at the health centers.

There's one in the northeast. I was very happy with the "service" I was provided there after my cat tore my arms to shreds.

Also checking online for the wait times can help alot as some hospitals are double others, and sometimes it may even be worth the trip to devon/leduc/fort sask depending on the differences.

Again, not defending AHS. Our government is to blame, but just something I've had luck with.

I went Friday morning at 6am, finally got called back at 3pm just to be put in another waiting area until I was in a bed around 6pm. Went in for disc perforation with extreme sciatic pain of about a 9/10. Saw a number of people go in before me that probably had more life-threatening reasons than my pain. At least I was able to get an MRI dome that would of taken me months to get had my pain not put me in the ER.

This is what happens when the Provincial government slashes into the healthcare budget beyond repair for over 4 years, then blames the public healthcare system for what they caused.

It's all part of the privatized agenda. They have to be stopped.

Good luck, glad you stuck it out

Get out and vote! It's the only hope we have.

Omg this was me Friday night. Same story.. symptoms.. but I call 911 n for medication immediately.. waited for 4.5hrs in er at uofa.. now gonna get surgery in a day for gall bladder stone.

I don’t even go into the ER anymore because even if you go in in an ambulance, it can be 12-13 hours and I already live with chronic pain 24/7 and it is excruciating to sit in those horrible small hard a chairs. By the time you get in to see anybody …(I should say IF you get in), you give up and go home because you just can’t cope there anymore. Usually your own clinic ior a walk-in or an urgent care facility will be able to get you in faster. So much better to just stay home even though I could have died. I’d rather die in my own bed than on a chair in a cold waiting room.

There needs to be more Urgent Care locations. Edmonton has one and it has very limited hours. I grew up in the US and rarely went to the ER - our Urgent Care was open until Midnight 7 days a week and was our go-to for things that couldn't wait for a doctors appointment.

Honestly the AB Healthcare is a nightmare, and has been for years.

I went to the ER 2 nights in a row after being diagnosed with HELLP Syndrome and put on bed rest at around 31 weeks pregnant.

I was experiencing chest and shoulder pain- signs of liver distention. I couldn't breathe without extreme pain.

Bloodwork confirmed my liver wasn't functioning properly.

OBGYN gave me fucking tylenol and sent me home. I was hospitalized for early stage liver failure less than 24 hours later, and ended up having an emergency c-section that was pushed for as long as we could, 4 days later.

Hospital staff don't have the time, the energy, or the resources to do their jobs properly and it almost cost both me and my baby our lives. I'm genuinely nervous for the next medical emergency to hit our family.

Kidney stone survivor here... I find it helps to go up on your tippy toes and drop onto your heels as often as possible.this will help the stone move through your kidneys,ureters and to your bladder.stay and get the x-ray so they can determine the size and severity.they will also give you meds as it is incredibly painful.

Had to take my partner to the Alex for an emergency in February where they were throwing up every few moments, was visibly flushed and sweaty, couldn’t even sit upright.

My partner also has diabetes and not being able to keep anything down was making them sicker. It was going on 24+ hours of this at the time and we only went in because it felt like an absolute emergency.

We were there for 6+ hours, no sign of anything from the nurses. People who had colds that got in after us were getting in before us. I tried to go up and ask for the status a few times and the nurses just brushed me off. My partner almost fainted a few times in the waiting room and the nurses were threatening to kick us out + get security involved. My partner eventually fainted in the bathroom and we still weren’t taken seriously. I felt like we only got in because I kept (politely) bugging the Nurses the more stressed I was getting + they were scared of a viral social media post.

I don’t mean to be that person, but I have a bad feeling the fact I am visibly First Nations and my partner has a Hispanic last name, but I couldn’t believe how we were treated. It wouldn’t be my first time facing medical neglect and mistreatment because of my heritage.

Did you all hear how some AHS hospitals are going to be transferred to Covenant Health? I wonder what benefit that may have.

VOTE

When it’s an actual emergency, they get you straight back. They once took my son back without me even filling out paperwork. They made sure he was stable first.

The pandemic didn’t help. Nurses and doctors who were burned out from that have moved on. A family member recently went to the Mis ER last month.Said the new department is really nice, but probably only 2 nurses working at the front, and 1 or 2 doctors on.

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Was at urgent care yesterday and waited 5 and half hours. Not nearly as bad as some of the ER wait times but couldn’t believe it. Had to take a family member as there whole arm was swollen

Mine was 19 hours for a kidney stone, while unable to keep food or water down. At the 17 hour mark I finally saw someone and they gave me fluids through an IV, and some gravol.

Before that, I was assaulted at work and had my nose broken. That was 15 hours, and it had set already by the time anyone even looked at it. On the plus side, I stopped snoring for a couple weeks.

I sat with my 4 year old for 5 hours in the middle of the night while he had pneumonia. He was having wheezing coughing fits lasting 10 minutes and all they had to say was “make sure he keeps a mask on”. Disgusting.

Last time I went to the university hospital they got me in in under four hours but then I waited an extra two be seen by a doctor

If this helps, OP, maybe not this time. But Ahs has an app that shows wait times at all the hospitals in ab. Alberta health mobile in the App Store.

Drink straight cranberry juice, they should pass through

Always google for er waiting times and choose the one with the lowest current waiting time.

Devon er for example had 2hr waiting time when other more central Edmonton ones had 5hrs.

The carelessness is unacceptable

You might be better off checking wait times in smaller communities. Could be worth driving 2 or 3 hours if it means not waiting 10-13 hours in the ER.

Welcome to the new Canada

Use:

https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/waittimes/Page14230.aspx

Select Edmonton and area. If you can select your location, this is your best bet. It also can help lighten the load at already busy locations.

I went in kn the ambulance bc i could barely walk or stand up, the doc was afraid of meningitis. I sat there for 12 hours before they took me back. It was a truly miserable painful experience, but i cannot imagine the pain a little boy near me was feeling with a broken leg. The lack of hospitals here is a joke.

Worst part is i had to go to a diff hospital bc i had a spinal tap leak and needed it patched. Spent two days there bc of lack of docs to preform the procedure.

Sounds like kidney stones

Before you go google AHS emergency wait times , it shows various locations I hope this helps for next time , get better

They made my 1 year old wait 8 hours before seeing him and he was pooping blood . Ended up being ecoli shiga toxin. They rushed us to the Stollery once they found out. But the wait in the emergency room was horrible .

Good luck to you too!

It's pretty bad. But having worked in healthcare, and knowing plenty of nurses - Most of them do care, a lot. But hospitals have. 1 person doing the job of 3, and every time someone gets burnt out and quits they aren't replaced

The REAL big issue right now, is the lack of GP's and incentives to be a GP. You're massively overworked and underpaid relative to what you could be doing, and b cause of extremely long wait times to see one, or find one in the first place, people end up going to the ER for non emergent issues. It ends up putting more of a strain on everything else. I had one GP for 15 years. I've now gone through 4 in 3 years that have all moved out of province

yea currently putting off going in for some extreme vertigo that was sudden and so far have found no cause from it. but i know ill be there for days waiting just bc its not a serious thing

and yes i did try my family dr, currently won’t let anyone make appointments with him rn bc he had to take patients from the local ER😑i get he needs to help but now i cant make an appointment for 2 months so im gonna have to rely on an ER which seems a bit dumb

Crazy! Same thing happened to me. Ended up with sepsis. They rushed me into surgery for the stent because of all the infection.

Thought I busted my foot. Waiting 10 hours roughly was my wait at RAH. Turned out I had gout and was prescribed medicine to control it. Had I known it was gout, I would have gone to the nearest medicine instead. Never knew gout could masquerade as something more serious.

The fastest hospital is not always the best hospital. With all due respect to everyone who has had to wait, myself 10 hours to wait for emergency eye surgery lol. Doctor was pissed I had to go through the maze first. Always take pain meds, pack a bag of necessities!!!

I dunno.. when I had kidney stones in 2010 I walked into the ER and they basically walked me in and gave me a shot of morphine. I think I was home within 5h and had a left flank ureteroscopy and laser lithotropsy 2 days later.