Woman frustrated by hip replacement delay at Edmonton hospital

A woman who is still waiting to find out when her hip replacement surgery will be scheduled at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital — even though it was already supposed to be complete — said she is feeling overwhelmed with frustration.

Collette Smith said she spoke to a surgeon in May who gave her an idea of what kind of timeline she should expect as she continues to experience mobility issues.

“The surgeon saw me and said that he wanted me through in six to eight weeks,” she told Global News on Thursday, noting that even though it’s now mid-October, she still has not been given a date.

“There’s a lot of things that I’d like to do (like) walking around and going to a park here in town, to walk around and enjoy the fall leaves. I don’t do that.”

Smith’s procedure is one of a number of elective orthopedic surgeries that have been delayed or cancelled at the Royal Alexandra Hospital since July.

In a statement issued to Global News on Thursday, Alberta Health Services offered details on what the status of the hospital’s ability to perform such procedures currently is.

“AHS is scheduling orthopedic surgeries requiring overnight inpatient stays at Royal Alexandra Hospital’s diagnostic treatment centre (DTC), and other hospitals in the EZ (Edmonton zone) that provide orthopedic surgical services, with priority given to previously postponed and waitlisted patients,” the health authority said.

“The DTC continues to handle complex procedures such as hip, knee, shoulder, and spine surgeries.”

AHS said the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s orthopedic surgery centre resumed orthopedic day surgeries on Oct. 1 but that elective orthopedic surgeries requiring inpatient overnight stays continue to be paused at that facility.

“Urgent and emergent orthopedic care at … (Royal Alexandra Hospital) remains uninterrupted,” the health authority said.

This week, the Alberta government provided an update on its overhaul of the provincial health-care system, announcing that the new agency responsible for primary care is expected to be up and running by November.

At a news conference in Calgary this week, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange spoke in general about the overhaul, suggesting that a tighter focus on primary care should have a trickle-down effect that helps other areas of the system.

“(Primary care) is the foundation of keeping people healthy and out of hospital as much as possible,” she said. “We want to do that preventative work. That early intervention work.”

Chris Gallaway, a public health-care advocate with the non-profit group Friends of Medicare, said he believes staffing is the key to improving health care.

“If you don’t have any doctors or surgeons or nurses or health-care workers to do the work, the work’s not going to happen and the care is not going to happen,” he said on Thursday.

Smith said she just wants to know when she will finally have her operation. She said that certainty would be a huge and welcome relief.

“Give me something to look to. If you’re going to tell me it’s going to be next July, at least I know it’s next July. And then keep it to next July.”

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