Red Deer hospital on surgical diversion, patients being diverted to Edmonton, Calgary

Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre in a file photo.

Patients seeking care at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre are being diverted to Edmonton and Calgary as the facility struggles with high patient volumes and staff shortages, according to Alberta Health Services. 

AHS implemented the surgical diversion at 9 p.m. on Jan. 31. It says emergency life or limb cases as well as patients already admitted will not be diverted. 

“This is not a decision that we take lightly, and it has only been made following extensive conversation and exploration to ensure all possible options have been exhausted,” reads a statement from AHS. "Cases being diverted are those where the patient can safely be transported for care."

“We recognize that such a diversion impacts our patients, who will receive care further from home than normal and in some cases, have a procedure postponed.”

The hospital’s elective surgery schedule will be reduced and a “small number of elective procedures” may be delayed to create capacity for more urgent cases, according to AHS.

It says the diversion comes “despite best efforts and exhausting all options to bolster [operating room] capacity at RDRHC and in surrounding rural sites,” and also noted “ongoing vacancies” with the hospital’s anesthesiology team. 

“The site is currently unable to keep pace with the number of cases being placed on the urgent surgical add list. These are cases that need to be treated in less than 72 hours.”

The diversion remained in effect as of Wednesday morning and AHS says it is expected to continue for the remainder of the week. 

“The surgical department heads continue to monitor the situation and explore all avenues to find additional support in order to resume usual surgical processes as quickly as possible.”

Red Deer is located in the Central health zone, where the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations more than doubled over the last month: from 71 patients on Jan. 3 to 160 on Jan. 31.

In late January, a triaged patient died while awaiting care inside the hospital where wait times grew to 14 hours, prompting calls from the mayor and health officials to address the region’s health-care capacity.