Alberta’s government has ordered a judge-led inquiry into the death of a man who waited for hours for care in an Edmonton hospital.
There will also be a new triage system that could see patients being cared for in waiting rooms.
Matt Jones, the minister in charge of hospital and surgical services, told reporters Thursday that he still has concerns and unanswered questions about the death of Prashant Sreekumar despite the fact an internal review has already been done.
“While system-level improvements are underway, a detailed independent and public review of how this specific case was managed also needs to be undertaken,” Jones told reporters.
“We owe that to his family and to all Albertans.”
Sreekumar, who was 44, died at Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital on Dec. 22. His family said he had been there for nearly eight hours with chest pains and increasing blood pressure. He was married with three children and his wife has said they want answers on what happened.
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Edmonton father dies waiting to see a doctor in hospital E.R.
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Craig Gillespie, a lawyer representing the family, said the inquiry will help, “but this doesn’t change what they are experiencing … and the devastating loss they are experiencing now and going to experience forever.”
The fatality inquiry is to examine the circumstances of the death and issue public findings and recommendations to help prevent similar deaths in the future.
Two other people had died in the hospital’s emergency department on the same day, though the circumstances of those deaths are unclear.
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Officials said Thursday that the two individuals were actively receiving treatment before they died but declined to be more specific, citing privacy rules.
Patrick Dumelie, the chief executive officer of Covenant Health, the organization that operates the Grey Nuns hospital, said the internal review made recommendations to improve care at the hospital but didn’t give details.
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“We are in 100 per cent alignment and committed to implementing them,” Dumelie said, standing alongside Jones at the legislature news conference. “We commit to honouring the lives of those lost by responding with seriousness, urgency, accountability, as the situation demands.”
Jones said the new triage system will be rolled out in hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary and will see physicians work alongside nurses to triage patients as they arrive in the emergency department.
He said this will help speed up patient assessments and diagnostic work and “begin care for patients in the waiting room where appropriate.”
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Aaron Low, the chief medical officer of Alberta’s hospitals authority, Acute Care Alberta, added that such care could include blood tests or certain imaging being done.
Low said the position will be a new role and therefore will mean additional physicians working at any given time.
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“We acknowledge that we’re going to need to recruit for this,” he said.
“That will happen over time because there will be more shifts to fill, but it will be the (doctors) who are currently working at all the hospitals … that will start filling these shifts as they are able to.”
Alberta’s government has been under pressure to take action as physicians have been sounding the alarm on cramped and overcrowded emergency rooms, especially in Edmonton.
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Physicians had been calling on the province to invoke a public health state of emergency, citing hospital overcapacity that as of Thursday was at 102 per cent capacity in the province’s biggest hospitals.
Jones acknowledged that emergency rooms were “under intense pressure,” citing factors like an influenza surge and population growth, but said they are opening more beds to deal with the surge and have longer-term hospital expansion plans.
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Opposition NDP hospitals critic Sarah Hoffman told reporters that Albertans deserved more from Jones than a repackaging of previously announced measures.
“Right now, we’re seeing a lot of stalling, delaying and promises that years from now, there will be more acute care hospital beds,” she said.
Dr. Brian Wirzba, head of the Alberta Medical Association, which represents doctors, said he appreciates the minister and health leaders recognizing the system needs help, but says they’re waiting to see results.
“For the public, it’s not going to be what’s announced today that matters, it’s going to be how long they wait in the emergency room in the weeks and months to come,” he said.
Acute Care Alberta is one of a group of new provincial governing agencies created by Premier Danielle Smith’s government to replace Alberta Health Services, which was dismantled as the provincial health authority and relegated to being a hospital services provider.
AHS is now splintered off into four different agencies — Acute Care Alberta (hospitals, surgeries), Primary Care Alberta (day-to-day health), Recovery Alberta (mental health/addiction), and Assisted Living Alberta (long-term care/support).
— With a file from Karen Bartko, Global News
© 2026 The Canadian Press