CALGARY—Too much partying during the Calgary Stampede is pushing the city’s emergency rooms past their limits.

A group of University of Calgary emergency doctors concluded as much after studying ER visits during the 10-day annual event from 2013 to 2016.

Led by U of C researcher Dr. Charles Wong, the group released its report last year. It compared the 10-day window with other summertime periods, including long weekends.

They found Stampede partiers tend to push emergency rooms past 100 per cent capacity.

The data showed “most of that volume we see is in the late evening and early-morning hours, between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m.,” study co-contributor Dr. Andrew McRae said.

Foothills Medical Centre, Rockyview General and the Peter Lougheed Centre are the three hospitals most often over capacity, he added.

The research team compared Stampede days with the 21 days before and after the event, with the dates adjusted slightly so each sample had a similar proportion of weekdays and weekends.

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In all, the study examined 263,380 emergency department and urgent-care visits during the period, including 34,492 visits during the Stampede.

McRae was quick to point out that such patients seldom come from the Stampede grounds; they’re coming from bars and pubs after the park has closed.

Excluding emergency departments “least likely impacted by the mass gathering,” including the children’s hospital and hospitals far from the city, overnight volumes at emergency departments increased by about 10 per cent on Stampede days compared to the other summer days studied. That’s often enough to push an emergency department over capacity, McRae added.

“Most often we’re operating close to 100 per cent patient capacity all the time, and sometimes over, so that extra 10 per cent does certainly strain our resources,” he said.

The strain also comes from the types of symptoms patients have while intoxicated, not just the number showing up at emergency departments, explained Dr. Eddy Lang, who heads up the Calgary zone for emergency medical services with Alberta Health Services. He also referenced the Calgary Stampede study, too.

Examples he cited include patients who can’t walk, get home safely or are passed out.

“They’re usually so intoxicated, they’re non-responsive,” Lang added.

Emergency rooms frequently deal with people choking on their own vomit, he said, which in rare cases can cause death.

Lang described such a state as resembling a coma, because a patient loses the ability to cough and clear the trachea of vomit.

“They often require ventilatory (breathing) support, because they’re so intoxicated, they can’t protect their airway from vomiting,” Lang explained.

A person in that state will need constant monitoring and respiratory support. If the patient does vomit, they need to have it suctioned out of their mouth so it doesn’t go into their lungs, he said.

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As of 7 p.m. on Wednesday, wait times at the three often crowded health centres — Rockyview, Foothills and Peter Lougheed — exceeded one hour and 15 minutes.

Rockyview was the longest of the three, with a wait time of two hours and 15 minutes.

McRae said the study didn’t isolate how many patients were in the ER due to binge drinking, but he said they probably “had more to drink than they ordinarily would.”

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