calgaryherald.com — An independent health-care probe found no proof Alberta lung cancer patients died waiting for surgery or physicians were paid to keep quiet, but raised concerns about political interference, excessive emergency room waits and a culture of "fear and alienation" in the medical system.The 428-page Health Quality Council of Alberta report released Wednesday found widespread instances of physicians experiencing "intimidation and muzzling" and revealed many patients in urgent need of care waited 10 to 20 times longer in emergency rooms than the recommended national guidelines.Council CEO Dr. John Cowell said one patient nearly died because he left without being seen after a five-hour wait."We learned of troubling instances of personal suffering by patients in crowded emergency departments, people in pain waiting exceptionally long times for medication; people waiting many hours, even days, for a hospital bed; very ill people in their last hours of life who needed compassionate palliative care, who died instead on a stretcher in the emergency department," he wrote in the report's introduction.Speaking to reporters, Cowell said his council came up with strong recommendations to prevent this from happening in the future."I can assure you that no deaths could be found that were directly attributable to the excessive emergency wait times at the University of Alberta Hospital over that period, but we have ample evidence that people suffered," Cowell added.The much-anticipated report slammed the province for undertaking a "massive reorganization" of the medical system without adequately consulting doctors, health-care staff or Albertans, saying the changes "blurred lines of authority and accountability."