Simply weeks after a person died within the ready room of the Gray Nuns Hospital in southeast Edmonton, there are extra indicators of a strained health-care system in Alberta’s capital — this time in relation to outpatient therapy.
A Spruce Grove household contacted International Information, claiming their daughter’s plasma transfusion appointments modified places thrice in December after being informed the College of Alberta Hospital emergency division overflowed into the outpatient unit.
For the previous 4 years, Cadence Herman has been receiving weekly transfusions to fight her uncommon illness: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.
“With out it I’m very dizzy. Each time I rise up my imaginative and prescient goes darkish, my ears ring and I’m vulnerable to passing out and falling over,” Cadence defined.
The sickness makes the 18-year-old extraordinarily drained, and she or he simply will get confused.
Cadence receives therapies on the medical outpatient unit contained in the U of A Hospital — however in December, the unit was laborious to search out.
“Recently it’s been sort of everywhere,” defined her mom Kyrie Herman.
“Week to week, we don’t know the place we go now.”
As an alternative of getting transfusions close to the ambulance bays, as she has persistently since changing into an grownup earlier in 2025, Cadence was informed she wanted to go to the Kaye Clinic — a distinct constructing utterly, to the west throughout 114 Avenue from the principle hospital.
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The next week, the household says there was extra confusion.
“We present as much as her appointment on the thirtieth and so they’re like, ‘It’s not on the College, it’s not on the Kaye Clinic, it really says you’re purported to be within the Mazankowski within the basement’,” Kyrie mentioned.
The Mazankowski is positioned on the east aspect of the principle U of A Hospital constructing, close to the nook of 112 Avenue and 83 Avenue.
Cadence went there, solely to be turned away.
Her mother recalled the change with employees.
“They’re like, ‘Yep, that is our new medical outpatient unit, however your appointment has been cancelled. We don’t know why. We will’t inform you why or who cancelled it.’”
Workers weren’t capable of accommodate her. For Cadence, lacking the transfusion means being confined to her mattress.
The household suspects the transfer was guilty.
“It had by no means been cancelled earlier than, I’ve by no means had that situation,” Cadence mentioned.
The unit relocations have been laborious on her.
“I’m already not feeling nice by the tip of the week. I’ve to stroll by the hospital to a number of departments,” she mentioned.
“It’s very irritating when your routine is tousled and you then’re going to be late and also you don’t know the place you’re. It’s very complicated and aggravating.”
In an announcement, Alberta Well being Companies mentioned the province “is seeing a rise in affected person demand as a result of respiratory virus season, and AHS services, particularly these in giant city areas, proceed to be very busy with excessive volumes of sufferers. To assist present further area, the Medical Outpatient Unit (MOU) on the College of Alberta Hospital has moved to the decrease degree of the Mazankowski Alberta Coronary heart Institute, generally known as ABACUS.”
“It is a momentary long-term area for the MOU and no further strikes are anticipated within the close to future.”
AHS went on to say it tried its finest to inform sufferers of the modifications and apologized for the inconvenience.
The household says it’s extra than simply inconvenient.
“It’s irritating to be jostled round. Not realizing which constructing your appointment goes to be in. We would pay for parking at one and discover out it’s throughout the road,” Kyrie defined.
The Hermans mentioned they’re simply in search of some consistency of their care and higher communication if issues change as soon as once more.
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