The rapid deterioration of health care in the South Fraser region is obvious. While Surrey, Delta and White Rock residents have become numb to the long, long waits at hospital emergency rooms and the inability to find a family doctor, recent circumstances have demonstrated that even worse prospects may lie ahead.
The canary in the coal mine was the recent overnight shutdowns at Delta Hospital’s emergency room. Each night on both Feb. 22 and Feb. 23 (Saturday and Sunday nights), the hospital ER was closed overnight – 10 hours the first night, nine on the second. The problem: no physician on duty.
While nurses were on duty overnight, they were limited to supporting walk-in patients with first aid and redirecting others to other hospitals.
While this situation has occurred literally hundreds of times in the B.C. Interior and in other smaller communities, this was the first instance in Metro Vancouver. A similar situation at Peace Arch Hospital was averted at the last minute last summer.
In the case of Delta Hospital, the situation was aggravated by the fact that there is no urgent care centre in South Delta, nor are there walk-in clinics. It seems astonishing (but unfortunately isn’t) that Fraser Health seems unaware of these factors.
Diverting ER patients to Surrey Memorial, Peace Arch or Richmond hospitals isn’t a good solution. Wait times at Surrey routinely stretch for 10 hours or more. Richmond, while the closest hospital to Delta, isn’t easy to get to if there are any traffic issues, because the only route is the Massey Tunnel. While the tunnel rarely has challenges in the overnight hours, the second closure stretched into Monday morning – when there often are significant problems.
The notice given to residents and the ambulance service about the closures has also come under fire. FHA announced the closure via X (formerly Twitter), not exactly the social media service checked by most prospective ER visitors. The ambulance service was given very short notice. This is a mistake, as ambulances have to be redeployed to take some patients who arrive at closed ERs to other hospitals, and it can affect service to many others who call for an ambulance.
The constant nature of this ER closure problem, which is often much worse in the Interior because of the long distances between hospitals, was highlighted in the B.C. legislature on Feb. 27. Twenty different BC Conservative MLAs got up during question period to ask Premier David Eby about no less than 1,407 ER closures in their particular communities over the past two years.
The premier ignored their questions, leaving Health Minister Josie Osborne holding the bag. She wasn’t able to articulate much that would give people comfort. Osborne, former mayor of Tofino, knows how such closures can affect smaller communities. In the four months she has been on the job as health minister, she has little to show in the way of progress.
There are many aggravating factors – rapid population increase, limited number of doctors wanting to work in hospital ERs, stress, staff shortages of multiple specialists and the bureaucratic structure of the health authorities. However, the problem keeps getting worse, and no one seems able to institute real positive change.
Coupled with other health-related challenges, such as a recent staffing shortage that resulted in a patient slated for a double lung transplant having his surgery cancelled after travelling from Vancouver Island to Vancouver; and long, long waits for diagnostic services, it is most definitely not a good time to need urgent health care in B.C.
Frank Bucholtz writes twice monthly on political issues for Black Press Media publications.
