Lacombe Hospital and Care Centre

I was admitted into the hospital with a severe infection in my leg and they treated me so well and I never felt uncared for at all. Desiree, Hannah, Kristen and the other LPN’s are amazing at their jobs and deserve all the credit for helping me recover.

The nurse was super nice it was the doctor who wasn’t so great. I waited for 3 hrs to see a doctor who didn’t care about my well being at all. Told me I was wasting his time and to go home. He did no examination and showed no respect or even sympathy for me. Doctors take oaths to do no harm and to care about Evie patients, and he failed to show any of those traits. Doctor Neevolt is a terrible doctor and I don’t recommend him.

Over the past few months I have made more trips here than I have in years (unfortunately). In January I came in for abdominal pain and waited in the waiting room for two hours, was then transferred to a private room for an hour and a half before someone came to look at me. They took some blood and brought me for an x-ray and then back to the room where I waited for another two hours. It was about 6 hours before I was out of there without a prescription or anything just a "eat a little better and maybe get a little more exercise." It seemed like a waste of time for something I could have googled? I had Dr. Brooks, she was very very kind though and I wasn't upset with her at all. My favourite doctor for sure. Jump forward to May -- I have a extremely painful allergic reaction or something in my mouth that had been going on for weeks. I go to the walk in clinic in Lacombe where it says it is at max capacity, so I drove to the Blackfalds walk in where it says it was also closed. Obviously I am not going home without answers so I drove to the hospital and got checked in. I sat in the ER for an hour and a half (this was at 4:30pm) before I was taken to a side room to talk to a nurse. (There was an old lady in the ER with a huge bandage around her hand because she accidentally cut herself with a kitchen knife and needed stitches. She was there since 11:30!) I told her what was going on and she told me that it did not sound emergent and that I needed to leave and go to the walk in clinic (which was closed when I went there). I told her it was closed and she told me they are open until 7 and that I needed to go there or I could sit here and wait four or more hours before anyone would even look at me. I opted to head to the walk in AGAIN, luckily they were open. I waited in the walk in for an hour and a half before seeing a doctor. I saw Dr. Brooks again (lovely, lovely lady) and she did some swab samples, gave me a couple at home remedies and send me on my way. I was told that someone would call me in a couple days to give me my results. One week later, no results, still an ongoing and worsening issue. I called them and was put on hold for twenty minutes and was then told that they lady I needed to talk to was on her lunch break. Called them again after work and finally talked to someone. She told me nothing was wrong with me, I told her there was something wrong and it was getting worse. She then told me that that was weird and unfortunate and that I needed to make an appointment with my family doctor. So I called the receptionist and the next opening with my family doctor was MID AUGUST. THREE MONTHS AWAY! I told her no and that I needed to see someone now and was told to call in the morning to be put on a cancellation list. Given my job, I can not be put on a wait list so that they can call me and say "come in in half an hour." Luckily after another couple painful weeks the infection went away naturally. Overall the hospital in this town is terrible, but healthcare in the central zone is not acceptable. I do not blame the hospital for the lack of care given, I place blame on the lack of funding from the government. The care we are given is unacceptable and something needs to be done.

If you are from out of province don’t go there. Me and a coworker were in there for 6 hours and 9 people went before use with non live threatening issues. I asked the nurse why it was taking so long she said we were not important enough. She said some other stuff but I’m not going to get into that. She was vary rude. Worst hospital I’ve ever been too.

If you or someone you know is suffering with a mental health issue, DO NOT choose this hospital if you need help. You won't get it here. Spill your feelings and struggles just to be told you need help but they have nothing to offer so you'll have to be transferred and boy o boy there is NO RUSH to do so. I met a teenage boy alone next to me, just seperated by curtains that's been in 30+ hours. Very seldomly checked on and that's being nice. Just a security guard camped out our doors to make sure we don't leave. Not a patient here, full blown prisoner.

I went to the ER, was the first one there in the morning, had to wait almost 2 hours before I was even looked at by a doctor. While waiting, nobody checked on me once how I was doing... The staff was to busy chatting. If you want me to respect you as a health care worker, you have to earn that respect!

Took my dad into emerg. with covid/pneumonia and the nurses were incredible! Busy and overworked to say the least!! I sure couldn't do that job! Dr. Crawley was wonderful juggling all the numerous issues that she had. Thanks so much to all of you! Thank-you treats are on the way.

This hospital is a prime example of how our healthcare system is completely failing. If you are a true healthcare professional that still has a passion for the people they treat then this post is certainly NOT aimed at you. There are many wonderful nurses, doctors and support staff that truly do make a difference it's simply the system you work in that is failing. Public healthcare is alarmingly slow and for only one reason.. MONEY! I'm not an advocate for privatization but healthcare needs an extreme makeover if it wants to stay public because people are littleraly dying for these cost-savings. I'd be on board for bringing in a small PST strictly for healthcare. Food for thought. This post is provoked from a current situation that I'm not going into detail with as I don't want to see anything negative come from it but I will say this. Why does it take a hospital over 24hours to get covid test results? And why can't elderly patients have their one support person present? The love they can bring in the room really can be the best medicine but isolation most certainly is not.