Close to half of the emergency patients to Peace Arch Hospital in the 2010-2011 fiscal year came from outside the Semiahmoo Peninsula, Fraser Health has revealed.
The number of patients coming to the hospital from outside the community has frequently been cited by critics as one of the factors for overcrowding in and around the ER.
According to statistics released by the authority, a total of 47 per cent of some 40,000 people passing through the hospital's ER during the fiscal year were from outside South Surrey and White Rock, basing community of residence on given postal codes.
Just 37 per cent of those in emergency during that time were residents of South Surrey, while 16 per cent were from White Rock.
The highest percentages of patients from outside the Peninsula came from Surrey-Newton (15 per cent) and Cloverdale (9 per cent). Fleetwood and Guildford accounted for six per cent, while Langley and Delta each contributed three per cent of the patients in the ER.
Other areas represented seven per cent of the patients, while for four per cent, the home community was unknown.
Recent criticism of congestion in and outside the emergency department – including the frequent presence in hallways of patients in beds separated by screens – has come from relatives of recent patients and Dr. John Todd, a general surgeon at the hospital and a frequent critic of the level of care possible under current budgetary constraints.
But Dr. Anne Clarke, medical director for the emergency program for Fraser Health, and an ER doctor at Peace Arch, has said the most pressure is placed on emergency staff by patients for whom there are not beds in other wards of the hospital.