{"id":253943,"date":"2025-11-01T06:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T06:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253943\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T06:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T06:03:11","slug":"edmonton-families-facing-long-health-care-wait-times-edmonton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253943\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton families facing long health-care wait times – Edmonton"},"content":{"rendered":"

More Edmonton families are speaking out about worrying health-care wait times in Alberta, wondering what the waits will mean for their families\u2019 care and how to improve them.<\/p>\n

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After six years of treatments, Samantha Dornbusch\u2019s son\u2019s cancer is now in remission.<\/p>\n

When she saw the Global News story on Thursday about an 11-year-old boy\u2019s chemotherapy appointments being cancelled<\/a>, she was heartbroken.<\/p>\n

Her family has been in and out of hospital since 2019, getting the treatments they need for nine-year-old Jackson.<\/p>\n

In that time, Dornbusch says she\u2019s noticed a significant change in care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t the issue of there\u2019s no beds, we\u2019ve never really had that issue in the beginning, in the first three years. It\u2019s been the last two-and-a-half years where it\u2019s been like \u2018Ok, we have no beds for you guys,’\u201d said Dornbusch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey tell you: it\u2019s life or death, you can\u2019t miss treatment, you have to stay on schedule, you have to do this. But then they come to you and they say, \u2018we can\u2019t do treatment.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dornbusch isn\u2019t the only one noticing these changes.<\/p>\n

Friends of Medicare says in recent years, the wait times have gone up for not only cancer treatments but diagnostic testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s stressful, it\u2019s a horrible feeling, it\u2019s not how our health-care system should be responding. We should be responding in timely ways that ensure people can live longer and have better lives,\u201d said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare.<\/p>\n

The union representing health care professionals says a major factor contributing to long waits is short staffing. HSAA data shows there\u2019s around a 17 per cent vacancy rate for radiation therapists.<\/p>\n

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Alberta Health Services addressed questions about the 11-year-old boy\u2019s recent treatment cancellation. It said the Stollery is facing capacity issues.<\/p>\n

On the claims of systemic problems, the province says it\u2019s creating new cancer care initiatives and is increasing surgical procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know more must be done across all cancer treatments. That is why we are taking action to reduce wait times, strengthen our workforce, and ensure Albertans receive timely, high-quality care,\u201d Matt Jones , the Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChildren with cancer sent home without chemo due to no beds at Stollery\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More Edmonton families are speaking out about worrying health-care wait times in Alberta, wondering what the waits will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[118258,17225,49,48,84,392,75940],"class_list":["post-253943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-alberta-health-care","tag-alberta-health-services","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-stollery-childrens-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}