A recent investigation by the Globe and Mail into the rate of emergency room closures across Canada since 2021 showcased how often local communities went without, either due to a staff shortage, lack of on-site physician, or temporary disruption.
Using a combination of data from access-to-information requests spanning June 1, 2021, to Oct. 31, 2024, as well as information from news releases regarding closures, the Globe laid out the data for each hospital with a registered closure or service disruption in Alberta.
The Boyle Healthcare Centre was the third most-closed hospital in the province, thanks to scheduled overnight closures. The facility has been closed for 12,412 hours over 1,033 days, and has had service disruptions for an additional 14 days and 161 hours during the data collection period.
Boyle Mayor Colin Derko said the situation has been frustrating for residents, but the consistent closures have been easier to adapt to as opposed to on-again-off-again access to emergency services.
“You often hear me use the analogy of a mother with her kids in her arms panicking, pulling on doors that are locked. Because the public got to know that, after a certain time, we were closed until 9 the next morning,” said Derko.
“It wasn’t nice, but at least safety-wise people weren’t wasting time coming to the hospital or expecting something that wasn’t there.”
The two hospitals that were closed more than Boyle, the Hardisty Healthcare Centre and the Consort Hospital and Care Centre, both had scheduled 24-hour closures. Consort is closed between 16 and 21 hours a day during the weekend, and all day on weekends, and Hardisty was closed full-time between June 2021 and September 2023.
As of writing, the Boyle Healthcare Centre’s ER is still closed overnight, every night, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 9 a.m..
“Our community has been understanding, but at the same time frustrated and concerned. AHS, or at least the people that are in charge of our area have been open and honest with us and trying to get things better,” said Derko.
The Swan Hills Healthcare Centre was the sixth-most closed ER in the province, primarily due to sporadic staffing shortages from 2023 to 2025. The hospital has been closed for 3,394 hours over 246 days, and service disruptions have occurred for an additional 1,437 hours over 69 days.
Lac La Biche’s William J. Cadzow has seen comparatively few closures — the facility has only been closed for 84 hours over eight days in September 2022 due to a nursing shortage — but an ongoing intermittent physician shortage has seen 3,036 hours of service disruptions over 297 days, mostly from 2023 onward.
Staffing shortages have also caused disruptions at the George McDougall Healthcare Centre in Smoky Lake, with 3,429 hours being recorded over 307 days, predominantly due to a physician shortage, although the facility never closed its emergency services.
Athabasca, Barrhead, and Westlock all registered zero closures during the time period, although Athabasca and Barrhead both saw service disruptions. The Athabasca Healthcare Centre had four days of disruption in April and June 2022, while Barrhead has seen 512 hours of disruptions over 75 days.
AHS didn’t respond to an interview request before publication.
