Busiest pediatric ER in B.C: Surrey hospital 'overrun' as sick kids get hallway medicine
Busiest pediatric ER in B.C: Surrey hospital 'overrun' as sick kids get hallway medicine
The surge in sick kids has B.C.'s Surrey Memorial Hospital seeing quadruple as many patients as their emergency department was designed for, and 100 more kids per day than last year – making it one of the busiest pediatric units in the country.
Much of the attention during the fall spike in respiratory viruses among children has been directed at BC Children’s Hospital, where they activated an emergency department overflow on Tuesday, but Surrey is facing a much more serious situation.
“The pediatric ER has been overrun for a while now and we have expanded into the adult side, where right now we're using two treatment beds,” said Dr. Randeep Gill, an emergency physician at SMH.
“We're seeing approximately 250 kids per day during the surge but it was built for 72 patient visits per day.”
Gill says with only 12 treatment rooms in the emergency department, they’re treating patients “wherever we can”, with kids waiting in hallways and some clinical assessments taking place in the waiting room. There are only 16 beds for admission for overnight treatment.
BC Children’s Hospital has 35 treatment rooms in their emergency department and are seeing only 165 children per day.
CTV News has spoken with a number of hospitalist pediatricians in recent weeks who all describe seeing more severe illness in kids this year than usual for the fall respiratory season. Gill agrees, and revealed they have to resuscitate some of those children.
“(Resuscitation) happens very frequently here,” he said of the hospital's pediatric emergency department.
“The number one cause of cardiac death is respiratory failure. When the lungs are infected by a virus, children do decompensate the fastest from respiratory failure so we're seeing a significant number of those cases as well.”
PARENTS FRUSTRATED AND FEARFUL
Severely ill children require overnight care and sometimes even extended care in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), which has led to the cancellation of scheduled surgeries for other kids, including those with life-threatening conditions.
Some children who need non-emergency medical treatment are getting squeezed out of hospital as the system appears to be failing all but the most serious cases.
“She’s suffering,” a mom CTV News is identifying only as Janice said about her daughter, who’d been waiting to see a doctor in the BCCH emergency department for more than five hours. Photos of the child show a massive abscess protruding from her skull and braided hair.
“We went to Surrey Memorial yesterday, after we’d been there the day before and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her,” said Janice, whose child was running a fever. “The day before, we’d been and they sent us home at 3 a.m. because there was no bed there, no bed in Abbotsford, no bed in (BC) Children’s Hospital.”
Both mother and child were exhausted, and Janice was emotional as she said “it's frustrating because I just need help for her. I'm tired of going to the hospital over and over.”
BC CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL DOWNPLAYS THE SITUATION
Despite an internal memo calling the influx of young patients a “surge storm” of illness, the executive director of clinical operations for BCCH downplayed the situation, calling their patient load “pretty normal seasonally.”
When CTV News pointed out 12 hour waits have become normal, which wasn’t the case before, Christy Hay suggested a new electronic records system with public reporting made those waits more noticeable, but acknowledged that system was also slowing down the process for healthcare workers.
Hay initially said that there are 55 care spaces in the BCCH emergency department, but when pressed admitted that “we operate about 35 of those clinical care spaces right now with current staffing.”
Of the emergency department overflow, she called it a “satellite clinic that we're staffing with our pediatricians and nursing staff” for less urgent cases, and when asked why they’re seeing so few patients compared to SMH with more resources, she claimed the patient needs are not the same.
“We are seeing a lot of higher acuity patients,” said Hay. “We definitely take patients from other hospitals, because we are the only level 1 trauma centre for pediatrics in the province and we're the only quaternary hospital for BC.”
But that’s a problem that’s been the cause of much consternation south of the Frase. The Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation has been tracking funding and says on a per capita basis, Vancouver Coastal Health residents see $3,033 per person versus just $2,229 in Fraser Health.
“(Surrey Memorial Hospital’s pediatric unit) used to have 24 funded overnight beds and that’s decreased to 16 now. So, a lot of the critically ill children, we have to send them out to BC Children’s Hospital,” said Gill. “It's extremely frustrating to see that we are the fastest-growing city, but we are not able to take care of our kids in our city.”
W5 goes deep into the narco heartland to interview a commander with one of Mexico's most brutal cartels. W5's documentary 'Narco Avocados' airs Saturday at 7 pm on CTV.
Memphis authorities released video footage Friday showing Tyre Nichols being beaten by police officers who held the Black motorist down and repeatedly struck him with their fists, boots and batons as he screamed for his mother and pleaded, ''I'm just trying to go home.'
When selling a home, Canadians may be exempted from paying capital gains tax on a residential property -- if it's their principal residence. On CTVNews.ca, personal finance contributor Christopher Liew explains what's determined as a principal residence, and what properties are eligible for the exemption.
Aryna Sabalenka, a 24-year-old from Belarus, who won her first Grand Slam title by coming back to beat Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Melbourne Park on Saturday night, using 17 aces among her 51 total winners to overcome seven double-faults.
With a deal under negotiation between Ottawa and provinces, and premiers invited to a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in early February, the issue remains one where the Tory leader's position appears somewhat murky, including to some inside his own party.
A Palestinian gunman opened fire outside an east Jerusalem synagogue Friday night, killing seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, and wounding three others before he was shot and killed by police, officials said.
The head of the Canada Revenue Agency says it 'wouldn't be worth the effort' to fully review $15.5 billion in potentially ineligible pandemic wage benefit payments flagged by Canada's Auditor General.
Using phones and tablets to communicate in encrypted chatrooms, a rapidly growing group of U.S. and allied troops and contractors are providing real-time maintenance advice -- usually speaking through interpreters -- to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.
The chief of the Williams Lake First Nation says he would support excavating possible unmarked graves at the site of the former St. Joseph's Mission residential school if that's what elders and the community decide is best.
Tyler Toffoli and the Calgary Flames rebounded from one of their ugliest losses of the season and picked up an important two points in the Pacific Division before starting the All-Star break.
Upward of five centimetres of snow fell in Calgary early Friday morning and officials said conditions were good, but the situation deteriorated later on Friday, leading to plenty of crashes and road closures.
Aryna Sabalenka, a 24-year-old from Belarus, who won her first Grand Slam title by coming back to beat Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Melbourne Park on Saturday night, using 17 aces among her 51 total winners to overcome seven double-faults.
The self-proclaimed spiritual leader accused of sexually assaulting four of his female followers between 2017 and 2020 made his first court appearance in Edmonton.
New details have emerged in an ongoing civil lawsuit against the City of Leduc as court documents detail allegations that women working as firefighters experienced systemic discrimination and sexual assault.
An Alberta government email review of whether Premier Danielle Smith’s office interfered with Crown prosecutors has taken a confusing turn, with duelling statements from two spokespeople on what was investigated.
The transformation of a house in downtown Toronto – from a multi-unit with below market rent to a luxury single-family home – is not an anomaly. But rather, housing and legal experts say it is emblematic of why a housing crisis continues to grip the city.
While the deadline to file your taxes is months away, there are some personal tax credits Ontarians may qualify for that require some time pilfering through receipts to get them.
On Jan. 29, 2017, six men were killed and five others injured shortly after evening prayer at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre. Montrealers gathered Friday to commemorate the victims and call for action amid a rise in hate crimes.
In an emotional and powerful speech at an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event in Ottawa, a survivor stressed the importance of remembering the millions of victims murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War and underscored the need to stand up against anti-semitism and hate.
The Francois Legault government announced the formation of an interdepartmental 'action group' on the French language to find ways to halt the 'decline' of the language in Quebec.
Sixteen Scottish curlers and 16 Canadians squared off against each other Friday morning as part of the 2023 Strathcona Cup, a tournament taking place across Canada.
A Saskatchewan man who had his charges stayed based on pandemic delays in court will be headed back for trial, after a ruling from the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.
Three downtown business organizations are advocating for the City of Regina to locate a new multi-purpose events centre and central library branch in the downtown core.
The Halifax Thunderbirds hosted its annual Every Child Matters night Friday, which included a pre-game ceremony to draw attention to and honour the victims and survivors of Canada’s residential school system.
Record collectors in Newfoundland will have a chance Saturday to paw through selections from the vast vinyl library belonging to 98-year-old radio station VOWR.
A group of friends from west London, Ont. are giving back to the community one coat, one coffee and one hug at a time. They hit the streets Friday night as part of a yearly initiative to help those living in rough conditions.
While the deadline to file your taxes is months away, there are some personal tax credits Ontarians may qualify for that require some time pilfering through receipts to get them.
The manager of a Tim Hortons in North Bay was wrong to fire a long-term employee because of her physical limitations, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has ruled.
W5 goes deep into the narco heartland to interview a commander with one of Mexico's most brutal cartels. W5's documentary 'Narco Avocados' airs Saturday at 7 pm on CTV.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) shut down a section of a Perth County roadway Friday after they say a passerby discovered a body in the area overnight.
A Kitchener elementary school is responding to reports of a suspicious man who appeared to be watching or following students on two separate occasions.
