Fixes to Edmonton hospitals 'top' priorities, AHS says

Fixing serious problems at two aging Edmonton hospitals are the provinces top health priorities, Alberta Health Services announced Tueday.

The announcement was made after the NDPreleased documents suggestingfive of the citys emergency departments require immediate attention.

Documentsobtained by theNDPunder a Freedom of Information requestshow the surgical departments of three major hospitals in Edmonton the Royal Alexandra, Grey Nuns and theMisericordia and are fully or partly in the so-called red zone,NDPLeader RachelNotleysaid.

The documents also found major operational or design issues at theWestviewand North West Health Centres.

Problems at the hospitals include capacity issues, unsecured medication, vermin infestations and poorly-designed wards that put patients and staff was risk.

Problems with mould, substandard back-up generators and sewage leaks into operating rooms were also found at the Misericordia hospital. The building has flooded multiple times, the most recent being earlier this month.

'We'll make sure that we can do as much as possible'

Clearly our top two priorities are to do something about theMisericordiaand to do something about the Royal Alex, said Dr. DavidMador, director of the Edmonton Zone forAHS.

AHS has laid out a 15-year plan for health care centres in Edmonton, which it says will not only address aging infrastructure, but also add more hospital space in the city.

In the legislature on Tuesday, Health Minister Stephen Mandel saidthe next provincial budget will likely contain more funds to to deal with the worst problems in the provinces aging facilities.

We'll discuss and look at what wecan do. We'll make sure that we can do as much as possible, he said.

It is a problem that we understand and we'll make sure we move ahead finding solutions

But Notley says these deficiencies are a result of decades of intentional neglect by the governing Tories. She said Mandel and Premier Jim Prentice need to take action now.

I dont care if the premier got elected yesterday, Notley said. This is his responsibility. This is the current health ministers responsibility.