It’s been reported that a triaged patient at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre died while awaiting care on Sunday, January 23, 2022.

Health Minister, Jason Copping responded to the reports stating that a further investigation is being done by during the latest COVID-19 update on January 25th.

“My heart goes out to the family and anyone who's passed away in in our in our system. 

I don't have all the details on this, I've just I just heard about it. I know that AHS is investigating. I understand that some of the facts you have raised that they were triaged, and brought into the into the emergency department and then,  sadly passed away. I'm taking this matter very seriously and I've asked AHS for a report and they're looking into it at this point in time,” said Copping.

At the time of the incident he says the hospital was fully staffed but experiencing higher than average wait times.

“My understanding in terms of initial reports that the emergency department in Red Deer at that time was fully staffed but recognized that there were some long wait times,” he added.

“Our focus and this is part of the plan that we laid out last week, is to provide additional surge capacity to deal with COVID which is putting strain on the system. As indicated, we'll be opening up some PRU’s (Pandemic Response Unit) this week and then leveraging is the staff, as much as as much as possible. As Doctor Yiu indicated last week we're bringing onboard numbers of nursing students. We've hired over the last two years, hundreds of nurses into the system. We recognize this is going to be a challenging time, but we're going to continue to focus to provide the best care for Alberta patients,” said Copping.

Of course, Red Deer’s hospital’s capacity has been a concern for Red Deer and Central Albertans long before the pandemic. In February of 2020, the Government of Alberta announced a $100M expansion to the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. The Minister indicated the Alberta Government will be making some decisions involving the hospital’s expansion in the coming weeks.

“We fully understand the need for increased infrastructure within the Central Zone and Red Deer and work is being done on that. I can't tell you anything further. Decisions will be made over the coming weeks in terms of what projects will go ahead in in the budget, but we are aware that there's an infrastructure deficit there,” said Copping.