12 Alberta hospitals lost their ER in May 2025

In May, I reported that Alberta Health Services had cut service at hospitals in 18 communities in April, 17 of which lost their emergency department.

This is a continuation of similar closures throughout 2021, starting in May of that year. And it’s driven primarily by a lack of physicians in the communities.

I dug through all the news releases that AHS issued last month to find out if there were any closures in last month, as well. Sure enough, there were.

Here’s what I found.

Hinton

AHS announced their first May closure back in April, when they said they were closing the emergency department at the Hinton Health Centre 3 times during the first week of May.

Start	End	Hours
21:00, 1 May	07:00, 1 May	10 hours
21:00, 1 May	07:00, 2 May	10 hours
21:00, 2 May	07:00, 3 May	10 hours
		30 hours

The following week, on the 6th, they announced another 6 closures for this community.

Start	End	Hours
21:00, 6 May	07:00, 7 May	10 hours
21:00, 8 May	07:00, 9 May	10 hours
13:00, 11 May	07:00, 12 May	18 hours
21:00, 12 May	07:00, 13 May	10 hours
21:00, 14 May	07:00, 15 May	10 hours
21:00, 15 May	07:00, 16 May	10 hours
		68 hours

A couple of weeks later, AHS posted about 2 more emergency department closures; although technically they said that it would “be without onsite physician coverage”, not that it would be explicitly closed.

Start	End	Hours
21:00, 20 May	07:00, 21 May	10 hours
21:00, 21 May	07:00, 22 May	10 hours
		20 hours

The final closures of the month were announced on the 26th.

Start	End	Hours
21:00, 26 May	07:00, 27 May	10 hours
21:00, 27 May	07:00, 28 May	10 hours
21:00, 28 May	07:00, 29 May	10 hours
21:00, 29 May	07:00, 30 May	10 hours
		40 hours

The community lost their emergency room for a combined 158 hours in May.

This emergency department also experienced closures in May, July, August, September, October, November, and December of last year, and January and April of this year.

Smoky Lake

The next closure was also announced in April, when AHS declared that they were shutting down the emergency department at the George McDougall Healthcare Centre in Smoky Lake.

Technically, it was 3 closures.

Start	End	Hours
16:00, 1 May	08:00, 2 May	16 hours
16:00, 8 May	08:00, 9 May	16 hours
16:00, 15 May	08:00, 16 May	16 hours
		48 hours

On the 21st, AHS announced another 2 closures:

Start	End	Hours
16:00, 22 May	08:00, 23 May	16 hours
16:00, 29 May	08:00, 30 May	16 hours
		32 hours

That’s a combined 80 hours for the entire month of May.

Like so many others, these closures were a result of AHS not having staffed a sufficient number of physicians for this hospital.

Nursing staff were on site, however, to conduct triage and assessments. EMS was rerouted to health facilities in surrounding communities.

This isn’t the first time that Smoky Lake has lost its emergency department either. It was also closed in April, August, and September 2022; March, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December 2023; January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, November, and December 2024; and January and April 2025.

Swan Hills

The first closure announcement in May was for the Swan Hills Healthcare Centre, which was posted on the 1st. It was actually for 4 closures.

Start	End	Total hours
19:00, 1 May	07:00, 2 May	12 hours
19:00, 2 May	07:00, 3 May	12 hours
19:00, 3 May	07:00, 4 May	12 hours
19:00, 4 May	07:00, 5 May	12 hours
		96 hours

A little over a week later, on the 9th, AHS posted 3 more closures for this emergency department.

Start	End	Total hours
19:00, 9 May	07:00, 10 May	12 hours
19:00, 10 May	07:00, 11 May	12 hours
19:00, 11 May	07:00, 12 May	12 hours
		36 hours

Four days later, they announced two more closures:

Start	End	Total hours
19:00, 13 May	07:00, 14 May	12 hours
19:00, 14 May	07:00, 15 May	12 hours
		24 hours

On the 23rd, they announced 3 additional closures:

Start	End	Total hours
19:00, 23 May	07:00, 24 May	12 hours
19:00, 24 May	07:00, 25 May	12 hours
19:00, 25 May	07:00, 26 May	12 hours
		36 hours

They followed up towards the end of the month, on the 28th, with another closure announcement. This time, the healthcare centre was evacuated and closed as of the 26th because of wildfire activity in the area. It didn’t reopen until the first week of June.

This was a combined loss of 192 hours during the entire month, not including the 5 days it was closed because of the wildfire.

All of these closures, except for the wildfire-related one, were caused by AHS having “a lack of clinical personnel”.

Swan Hills also lost ER service in January, February, May, July, and December of 2022; June, August, and November of 2023; January, April, June, August, September, October, and December of 2024; and January 2025.

Coronation

AHS made their second closure announcement in May on the 1st, planning to close the emergency department at the Coronation Hospital and Care Centre.

In the announcement, AHS said they planned to shut down the department 3 times in May.

Start	End	Hours
08:00, 2 May	noon, 2 May	4 hours
08:00, 16 May	noon, 16 May	4 hours
08:00, 30 May	noon, 30 May	4 hours
		12 hours

On top of that, they said earlier this year that effective 5 February they were going to close down the department for 24 hours starting at 08:00 every Thursday for the foreseeable future. That announcement also said that the emergency department would be closed every weekend, from noon on Friday until 08:00 the following Monday.

I have yet to see an announcement saying that they have cancelled this closure yet. For May, that came to 428 combined hours.

When you add that to the three separate closures, we get a combined total of 440 hours.

These closures were due to AHS’s inability to have sufficient staffing levels of physicians, or as they called it: “gaps in physician coverage”.

Nursing staff were on hand to assess patients and provide limited care.

Coronation also lost their emergency department in April, May, June, July, September, October, November, and December 2022; January, February, March, October, and December 2024; and January 2025.

Spirit River

On the 3rd, AHS announced that they planned to close the emergency department at the Central Peace Health Complex in Spirit River.

The closure would last until 19:00 that evening. The announcement didn’t include a start time; however the meta data on the webpage indicated that the announcement was published around 03:30 that morning. Assuming the emergency department was already closed at the tine of publishing, that would be a closure of at least 15.5 hours.

This closure was a result of AHS not having enough “clinical personnel” in Spirit River.

Spirit River also lost its emergency department in August 2021; in April, June, and December of 2022; in August, September, and November of 2023; and in January, July, September, and December 2024.

Lac La Biche

AHS announced on the 5th (which, incidentally, was my 30th wedding anniversary) that they were shutting down the the emergency department at the William J. Cadzow – Lac La Biche Healthcare Centre.

The closure began at 16:00 that evening and lasted until 08:00 the following morning, for a total of 16 hours.

That works out to a combined loss of 16 hours for this community’s emergency department in April.

Nursing staff were on hand for triage and assessments during all closures, but those needing emergency care were referred to emergency departments in other communities in the region.

The announcement also included information about a virtual emergency physician programme being piloted in the region, where site clinical staff can connect with an AHS physician by telephone or videoconference for emergency patients with non-life threatening issues. This physician can collaborate with local healthcare workers, speak with patients, order tests and medications, and transfer or discharge patients.

The community also lost their emergency department in June and August 2022; in March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December 2023; January, February, April, May, August, October, November, and December 2024; and January and April 2025.

In May 2022, Lac La Biche also lost “obstetrical and surgical services for an undetermined period”.

Boyle

AHS published an announcement on the 7th saying that they had evacuated and closed the Boyle Healthcare Centre the day before due to wildfire activity in the area.

It reopened at 13:30 on the 9th, resulting in a closure of about 3 days.

Boyle’s emergency department was also closed in June 2021; April and June of 2022; August and December 2023; and May, August, September, November, and December 2024.

Valleyview

AHS announced a closure on the 7th, this time for the emergency department at the Valleyview Health Centre.

The closure was to begin at 16:30 that evening and last for 15.5 hours, until 08:00 the following morning, and was once again a result of AHS’s “inability to secure physician coverage”.

Nurses, however, were available in the emergency department during both closures, but only to provide triage, assessments, and referrals for patients to alternate emergency departments in surrounding communities, as needed.

The community also lost its emergency department in October and December 2023, as well as in January 2025.

Redwater

AHS evacuated acute care patients and long-term care residents from the Redwater Health Centre in response to wildfire activity in the area. They returned to the health centre during the weekend of the 18th and 19th.

On the 14th, the community of Redwater received notice from AHS that they were losing their emergency department for 24 hours as of 08:00 that morning.

Towards the end of the month, on the 27th, AHS announced 6 more closures, only one of which would occur in May, running from 08:00 on the 28th to 08:00 on the 29th.

According to AHS, this closure was because “there [would] be no physician on site”.

This was the third time since since I began tracking closures in May 2021 that this community has had its emergency department closed. The other times were this past January and April.

Fort Macleod

On 28 May, AHS announced that they were closing the emergency department in the Fort Macleod Health Centre the following day for 24 hours, beginning at 08:00 on 29 May.

Fort Macleod was also without emergency department services in September and December 2023; April, May, July, August, October, and December 2024; and January and April 2025.

Fort Vermilion

AHS announced on the 29th that the emergency department at St. Theresa General Hospital in Fort Vermilion was going to have no emergency department for 8 hours every night for 11 days, starting that evening. Each closure would begin at midnight and end at 08:00 the next morning.

These closures were a result of AHS’s “inability to secure physician coverage”.

The May portion of these closures totalled 16 hours.

This isn’t the first time that the emergency department at this hospital has been affected by closures. AHS also closed it in July 2021 and April 2023.

Ongoing closures

Keep in mind that these are just the closures announced in May. It doesn’t include communities with extended closures, such as Grimshaw, where AHS closed their emergency department for 12 hours every night in November 2022 and still hasn’t changed it. That was a combined 372 hours in May.

Two Hills has had reduced hours since March 2024. It’s closed between 22:00 and 08:00 Mondays through Thursday, as well as each weekend, from 17:00 on Friday to 08:00 on Monday. That amounts to 468 hours in May.

Since September 2024, Elk Point has lost their emergency department for 25 hours starting at 07:00 every Wednesday. For May, that was 4 Wednesdays, for a combined 100 hours.

Finally, at the end of April 2025, AHS announced that they were opening the emergency department in the Bow Island Health Centre only on the weekend, closing from 07:00 each Monday until 07:00 each Friday. That amounted to 408 hours in May. AHS also announced that it would be closed for the final weekend of May, starting at 07:00 on the 30th, so the May portion of that closure would be 41 hours.