The woman stands hesitantly at the emergency department entrance, her seven-year-old daughter’s hand clutched tightly in hers. Inside her purse is a referral letter dated eight months ago. The pediatric specialist appointment that was supposed to happen “within weeks” has yet to materialize. Now, her daughter’s symptoms have worsened, and the after-hours clinic turned them away. As they step through the sliding doors, she wonders how many hours they’ll wait this time.
This scene repeats daily across Edmonton, where families increasingly find themselves caught in a healthcare system struggling to meet demand.
“We waited six hours last time before even seeing a triage nurse,” says Marisa Kowalchuk, a mother of three who brought her youngest son to the Stollery Children’s Hospital emergency department three times in January before finally getting proper treatment for his recurring respiratory issues. “The doctors and nurses are amazing once you get to them, but getting to them? That’s where the system falls apart.”
Kowalchuk’s experience reflects a growing crisis that statistics are only beginning to capture. According to Alberta Health Services data, median emergency department wait times at Edmonton’s major hospitals have increased by approximately 35% over the past two years, with some patients waiting up to 12 hours for care during peak periods.
For specialized care, the situation appears even more dire. Current wait time tracking from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows Albertans waited a median of 36.1 weeks for orthopedic surgery in 2023—nearly double the national average.
When I visited the University of Alberta Hospital on a Tuesday afternoon, what struck me wasn’t just the packed waiting room but the resignation on patients’ faces. The collective understanding that this marathon of waiting has become normalized.
Dr. Karen Mazurek, a family physician who has practiced in Edmonton for over two decades, tells me the problem extends far beyond emergency rooms.
“Wait times are the visible symptom of a much deeper issue,” she explains as we chat in her south-side clinic. “Family doctors like me can’t find specialists who can see our patients in a timely manner. Mental health referrals can take 8-12 months. Diagnostic imaging that used to take weeks now takes seasons to schedule. Meanwhile, patients get sicker, or they give up and end up in emergency when things escalate.”
The statistics support her observations. Recent reporting from Alberta Medical Association shows nearly 700,000 Albertans currently lack a family doctor, forcing many to rely on walk-in clinics and emergency departments for basic care needs.
For the Malhotra family in Mill Woods, the consequences of these wait times have been life-altering. Raj Malhotra took his father to emergency with chest pain last October. After a five-hour wait, his father was admitted, but then waited another four days for an angiogram.
“By the time they did the procedure, there was significant heart damage that could have been prevented,” Malhotra says, his voice tight with controlled emotion. “The cardiologist told us directly that earlier intervention would have meant a very different outcome. Now my father needs care every day.”
Stories like the Malhotras’ highlight the human cost behind the statistics. But pinpointing solutions has proved challenging, with stakeholders offering different perspectives on the root causes.
Dr. John Cowell, Alberta’s Official Administrator for Alberta Health Services, points to post-pandemic patient volumes, staffing shortages, and infrastructure constraints. In a December statement, he noted that Edmonton area hospitals regularly operate at 110-120% capacity.
However, healthcare workers paint a more complex picture. At a recent town hall meeting I attended at MacEwan University, nurses, specialists, and support staff described a system under pressure from multiple directions.
“We’re not just short-staffed; we’re burning out the staff we have,” said Kelsey Richardson, an emergency department nurse with 12 years of experience. “The complexity of patients has increased dramatically. People are coming in sicker because they’ve waited so long for care. Then they wait longer in emergency because there are no beds upstairs, and there are no beds upstairs because there’s nowhere to discharge patients to.”
This “throughput” problem—patients unable to move efficiently through the system—creates bottlenecks at every level of care.
For children and families, these bottlenecks can be particularly devastating. The Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation has documented a 30% increase in emergency visits over five years, while pediatric specialist recruitment has not kept pace with population growth.
Aisha Mohammad, whose daughter lives with a rare neuromuscular condition, described spending 36 hours in an emergency department hallway with her immunocompromised child.
“They had nowhere to put us,” she explained when we met at a parent support group. “The nurses brought screens for privacy, but my daughter was exposed to everything going through that department. Two weeks later, she developed pneumonia and ended up admitted for 10 days.”
What makes Edmonton’s situation particularly challenging is that it serves not just the city’s growing population, but also acts as the major referral center for northern Alberta, the Territories, and parts of Saskatchewan. Complex cases from across this vast region funnel into a system already stretched beyond capacity.
Provincial health officials have announced several initiatives to address wait times, including the controversial proposal to increase private delivery of publicly funded procedures, expanded hours at urgent care centers, and virtual care options. In January, the province announced $158 million in new funding specifically targeted at reducing surgical and diagnostic backlogs.
Yet families continue to struggle while these solutions slowly materialize. Community advocates like Health Care for All Alberta have documented hundreds of stories from patients navigating these challenges, many reporting that they’ve given up on timely care entirely.
“We’re creating a two-tier system by default,” says Dr. Mazurek. “Those who can afford to pay for private diagnostic imaging or travel to other provinces for care are doing so. Everyone else waits, and waits, and waits.”
For Edmonton parents like Kowalchuk, the immediate future looks challenging. Her son needs follow-up care with a respiratory specialist, but the appointment is still months away.
“I keep a folder of all his records now and basically have to advocate at every step,” she says. “The system seems designed to make you give up. But when it’s your child, giving up isn’t an option.”
As we finished our conversation, she showed me a community spreadsheet parents have created, tracking which clinics have shorter wait times, which emergency departments seem to move faster, and which specialists might see patients sooner if approached directly. It’s a grassroots response to a systemic problem—families helping families navigate a labyrinth of waiting.
For now, that community support may be the most reliable medicine available.
