CALGARY — Alberta Health Minister Iris Evans said Wednesday she's "deeply concerned'' that another woman has miscarried while waiting for help in a hospital emergency room -- the third in three months.

Evans said she is troubled that the latest case happened so soon after the Calgary Health Region outlined system changes to ensure it wouldn't happen again.

Jack Davis, chief executive officer of the health region, had assured the minister "that he takes this incident very seriously and will be seeking immediate solutions,'' Evans said.

Liberal Opposition Leader Kevin Taft called on Evans to fire Davis, saying the region "doesn't have the leadership it needs to address the growing emergency room crisis.''

"This is shattering,'' Taft said in Edmonton. "This isn't happening in Afghanistan or some MASH unit --this is happening in the richest city in Canada. There's no excuse.''

Davis captured headlines in early September when Alberta's auditor general revealed that a "supplemental pension'' payment of more than $400,000 pushed his yearly compensation package to more than $1 million.

In the latest emergency room complaint, Margaryta Marion, 27, said she miscarried at Calgary's Peter Lougheed hospital on Sept. 24 after waiting more than six hours to see a doctor.

Her husband said that Marion, who was three months pregnant, bled heavily while waiting in a wheelchair in the emergency area.

The health region had promised to change the way it deals with women who are miscarrying after another miscarriage at the same hospital in July. Rick and Rose Lundy repeatedly asked for help but were told they'd have to wait for a bed. Rose Lundy eventually miscarried in front of more than 30 other waiting patients.

Two days ago, another woman came forward saying the same thing happened to her at the hospital last week. Erin Wilson of Strathmore, Alta., began miscarrying in the packed emergency room and was denied a private place to go despite asking for help.

On Tuesday, the health region apologized to Wilson and her husband.

"On behalf of the region, we are sorry that this situation occurred and we empathize with this patient and her family,''  Davis said in a statement.

"We are reviewing the circumstances of this case, as we do with all patient complaints, as part of our patient concerns process.''

The region has responded with plans to hire social workers for emergency rooms and announced a dedicated 24-hour phone line (403-943-1506) for the public to call to provide input on how service can be improved.  

Jane Sustrik, a provincial vice-president of the United Nurses of Alberta, said Wednesday the cases show some "tragic, systemic problems'' in the province's health-care system.

"There's really been no short-term or long-range planning done until very recently . . . (and) people . . . need to be held accountable for these kinds of situations that are arising,'' she said.

"And I don't think the people that should be held accountable are front-line nurses.''

Sustrik said a shortage of nurses is exacerbated by the fact that nurses have more ability these days to move to other jobs.

"Emergency rooms are high-stress,'' said Sustrik. "They don't have the best of conditions, as we're hearing about. Nurses are saying, `Why would they stay in those positions?' They'll go and find something a little less stressful.''