Capacity limits at Stollery in Edmonton lead to chemotherapy delays for children

Samantha Dornbusch has been bringing her son Jaxson to Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital for six years to treat his high-risk B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer that primarily affects children.

Jaxson, now nine years old, would sometimes spend days at the hospital to receive chemotherapy treatment before returning home.

Over the last two years, on at least three occasions, they say they would show up to the hospital only to have staff tell them that his treatments would be delayed because there were no beds currently available.

“It was frustrating more than anything,” Dornbusch said.

Each time she said they would have to wait two to four days for another appointment to be scheduled.

Jaxson has been in remission from his cancer since September. His last round of treatment was after a previous remission that lasted nine months, and his mother is still worried about his recovery.

“I am so scared of another relapse because he was delayed in treatment quite a few times this time around,” Dornbusch said.

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According to Alberta Health Services, several young patients in Edmonton have recently faced chemotherapy treatment delays at the Stollery Children’s Hospital due to space restrictions.

“All patients who had their appointments postponed have since started treatment,” the health authority said in a statement issued to CBC News. “This is not a regular occurrence, and we do not anticipate it becoming one.”

But Dornbusch said she has faced an increase in the number of chemotherapy delays in recent years compared to when she first began coming to the Stollery with Jaxson.

Competing for space

“The bed crunch has become more severe,” said Dr. Sam Wong, the president of pediatrics for the Alberta Medical Association. He has worked at the Stollery for 20 years.

He said he has witnessed surgeries being cancelled or managers asking to discharge patients earlier than previously planned because they need more beds available for emergencies.

“It’s not super frequent, but it’s frequent enough that it’s causing problems,” Wong said.

He said the Stollery has also started using common spaces to add more beds, like a toyroom, a teen room or classrooms.

“I am concerned,” Hospital and Surgical Health Services Minister Matt Jones said on Nov. 24 at a news conference to announce Alberta’s government had selected a site to build a new stand-alone Stollery Hospital.

“We’ve already seen this year with the up to two-day delay in children receiving some chemo services due to space constraints here,” he said.

Jones said there’s a strong desire to expedite the construction as the current Stollery, which is inside a section of the University of Alberta Hospital, has to compete for space.

He added that the Stollery is one of the busiest acute care facilities in the province, serving families from not only Edmonton, but all over northern Alberta, the Northwest Territories, B.C. Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Yukon.

Concerns over chemotherapy delays date back years

The problem of capacity issues leading to chemotherapy delays is not new, according to another mother whose daughter began chemotherapy in 2018.

“The first cycle of chemo, she was delayed every single cycle, whether her body was ready for it or not,” said Alana Janvier.

Her daughter Justine came to the Stollery for treatment of osteosarcoma, a kind of bone cancer. Janvier said her daughter’s treatments were postponed 13 separate times over a two-year period. According to Janvier, each time they were told those delays were related to space constraints.

“As a parent, you’re already terrified,” she said. “Adding bed shortages on top of cancer or any serious illness is unbearable.”

After going into remission, Justine’s osteosarcoma came back in 2020.

“When she was first diagnosed, it was very hopeful,” said Janvier.

“Then when she relapsed, they basically told me, …’We’re just prolonging her life.’”

In 2021, Justine died at the age of 12.

Janvier said knowing that there are multiple studies which find unplanned delays in chemotherapy treatment can decrease survival odds for osteosarcoma patients raises painful questions she will never get the answers to.

New plans for stand-alone hospital provide some hope

Jones said it will likely take a minimum of five to eight years for a new stand-alone children’s hospital to be built in Edmonton.

Wong said he expects to be retired before the new site opens, and in the meantime doctors will continue to work within the constraints they have.

“We do the best we can with the resources we have available, and that’s the hard part is there aren’t enough resources available,” he said.

AHS said it is currently experiencing inpatient capacity challenges at the Stollery, but an additional 10 inpatient beds are being added this week and will remain open for the respiratory virus season.

Janvier said the stand-alone Stollery announcement feels like it honours Justine’s legacy, even if it is years away.

“While this doesn’t bring Justine back, it means her experience can help future kids … and that’s something she’d be proud of,” she said.