Alberta minister says cases of preventable deaths raised by doctors ‘concerning’

An Alberta health minister says reports of recent deaths and near-misses in overflowing emergency departments are concerning but he is confident that Albertans will still get the urgent care they need at hospitals.

In a document sent to government officials last week and first reported by The Globe and Mail, physicians detailed six preventable deaths and more than 30 close calls – cases in which high-stakes diagnoses were delayed because of severe overcrowding – in the first two weeks of the year.

Matt Jones, minister of hospital and surgical health services, told media on Tuesday that he is taking the anonymized cases seriously but said they are not representative of the provincial health system.