Acute care concerns
May 17, 2024
Alberta's acute care crisis has been unfolding for many months. We need action toward solutions. In Acute Care Concerns we highlight some areas of the acute, hospital and community specialist world to increase awareness of parts of the health care system that many Albertans will never see.
Issue One: Cancer Care
Alberta’s cancer care system delivers some of the best treatments and care options in Canada but is dangerously overloaded and under-resourced. Right now, it takes up to 13 weeks to be assessed by a radiation oncologist and up to eight weeks to be assessed by a medical oncologist at Alberta’s cancer centres. Only 60% of the top five cancer surgeries (bladder, colorectal, breast, lung and prostate) are performed within Alberta’s recommended target time. Approximately one in two Albertans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and cancer remains the leading cause of death in Alberta. A Canadian study has shown that delaying cancer treatment by four weeks can increase a person’s risk of dying by 6 to 13%.
