While, Alberta is faced with what doctors warn is an imminent collapse of the province's emergency room system, a veteran minister of the Alberta government had to be taken to hospital Monday, after he suffering from an anaphylactic shock brought on by a nut allergy.

Minister of Infrastructure, the burly Ray Danyluk who is severely allergic to peanuts, became ill suddenly after he came in contact with peanuts during a caucus meeting. He was given a dose of epinephrine, even as his colleague Gene Zwozdesky, the provincial Health Minister called for help.

Treated in the emergency room, Danyluk did not stay overnight and is expected back at work Tuesday.

Paul Parks, the Head of Emergency Medicine for the Alberta Medical Association (AMA), outlining his concerns in a letter to Zwozdesky a couple of weeks ago, wrote unprecedented emergency room wait times caused by 'severe systemic overcrowding', has the system on the verge of 'potential catastrophic collapse'.

In response, the minister toured emergency rooms and announced opening over 200 new beds, which has critics questioning where the funding and staff will come from.

The first warning about over crowding was received by the government in 2008, but for two and a half years, despite knowing there was a dangerous crisis in health care, the government kept that fact hidden from Albertans.

Zwozdesky is getting ready to table a massive Alberta Health Act this fall, which bill will include a charter of patient rights, though the charter is not expected to be legally binding.