One in five Albertans waiting for medical care has faced delays of more than a year: survey

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Many Albertans struggle to find family doctors and face long wait times for medical care, according to a new survey from the Alberta Medical Association.

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Results from the AMA survey, released Friday morning, show that one in five Albertans currently waiting for care has faced delays of more than a year.

That includes the 35 percent of Albertans who don’t have a family doctor, the 24 percent who are waiting for a surgical procedure and the 24 percent who are waiting to see a specialist.

“It will take time to turn around. There are a limited number of surgeries that we can physically do, there are a limited number of appointments that specialists can make. Even working as hard as we can, it will be years before we see changes,” said AMA President Dr. Vesta Michelle Warren.

“We have some immediate needs, but we need to be very thoughtful, work together and get all of our experts on the same page.”

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The issue of waiting times is greater in rural areas, according to the survey, with average waiting times for all types of service greater than those reported in urban areas.

But Warren stressed that Alberta’s big cities aren’t shielded from pressure on the health care system.

“This is not a hot spot issue. This is not just Lethbridge, this is not just rural Alberta,” Warren said. “This issue is for the entire province. We know that it is also in other provinces, we have been listening to it. But other provinces are also acknowledging it and trying to reverse it, and that is what I would like to see from our provincial leaders as well.”

The survey results included data from patients who were asked to voluntarily share their stories. The AMA said discouragement over wait times and anxiety over family members’ access to care were among the themes that emerged.

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Those frustrations may also be contributing to an increase in reports of aggression toward healthcare workers, Warren said.

“People are just frustrated and unfortunately they take it out on people who are doing everything they can to help them, and that in turn leads to burnout and can turn people away from continuing to work in the field,” he said.

The survey sampled more than 7,900 Albertans through the albertapatients.ca Website. The survey participants were self-selected, which means that the survey did not randomly sample the population and the results cannot necessarily be generalized to the entire population.

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Twitter: @jasonfherring