B.C. doctors discuss 'disarray' in hospitals as pediatric ICU overflows and patients in labour are turned away

A meeting between pediatric emergency medicine specialists and obstetricians in Metro Vancouver revealed a frustrated hospital workforce struggling to meet the demands of a region full of sick children, CTV News has learned.

The meeting revealed staffing challenges so severe that hospitals are turning away parents in labour in some cases.

Several physicians raised questions and addressed issues both specific and general, including the revelation that six children have died in British Columbia from influenza in a two-week period. 

Most of the participants work at BC Women’s Hospital and BC Children’s Hospital. They described young patients and their parents sitting on the floor of the emergency department waiting room during peak periods, with those in active labour or requiring C-sections waiting hours for medical attention. 

In one case, a patient who went to BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver was told the nearest hospital that could accommodate her delivery was in Squamish. Doctors heard that every maternity hospital in the Lower Mainland is often on diversion at the same time, meaning patients aren’t admitted, and are instead sent away in the hope of finding another hospital to help deliver their infants.

CTV News asked the BC Women's Hospital how many times in the past month patients have been sent away, but communications staff have not yet responded.

The tone and comments from those involved in the meeting range from worried to terse, with questions about what was being done to improve a hospital described as being in "disarray."

TRUE PICU STATISTICS

For months, CTV News has been hearing from frontline staff frustrated at what they describe as officials downplaying the true situation in hospitals. Some are frustrated by statements about surgical cancellations, but pediatric intensive care statistics promoted by the provincial government have been a particular source of ire. 

As recently as mid-November, Health Minister Adrian Dix told reporters that when it came to capacity, “as of (Nov. 15), it was 67 per cent, and I think we reported that in our children’s critical care beds today (Nov. 16) at 64 per cent.”

One of the children’s hospital doctors told their colleagues on the call that they only have capacity for 12 patients, and at times are seeing 13 or 14; their peak was 16 children who were critically ill or recovering from surgery.

Dix has never been clear on the occupancy of staffed beds versus physical spaces, but a BC Children’s Hospital administrator revealed that there may be some creative accounting involved: she initially told CTV News there were 55 care spaces in the emergency department, then acknowledged only 35 of them are staffed. 

PLANS FOR MORE CAPACITY

On Saturday morning, the PICU briefly declared a “code orange” – a designation typically used in the event of mass casualties – due to a crippling staff shortage. 

The hospital is now using “team-based nursing care,” which insiders describe as a few experienced nurses directing more inexperienced staff – a far cry from the one-on-one care that was standard practice in British Columbia pre-pandemic. 

While Surrey Memorial Hospital sees far more sick children each day, the sickest are sent to BC Children’s Hospital, which has the only pediatric ICU in the Lower Mainland. In the meeting, doctors heard that there are plans to increase capacity by 50 per cent, to 18 PICU beds. 

CTV News still has not heard back from the hospital’s communications department after asking for a potential timeline on the PICU expansion.