Fraser Health takes over motel for discharged patients who can't go home

The sign says George Point Inn.

But beginning Monday, this motel will become temporary transitional housing for some patients being discharged from Surrey Memorial Hospital who can't go home.

“Having patients in an acute bed when they are ready for discharge is not good for anybody and certainly not for the patients,” said Dr. Marietta Van Den Berg, the site medical director for Surrey Memorial Hospital.

“It’s frustrating and it’s not really a great environment to be in an acute unit when you are ready for discharge but can’t go home,” she explained.

Fraser Health has leased the entire motel for two years at a cost of $4.5 million. Operational costs will be $5.5 million over the same time period.

“We have staffed it with 24/7 nursing staff because maybe some of these patients, even if they had gone home, may need help with taking their medications, for example,” the doctor said.

The revamped motel will start with about five patients.

“Gradually, as we get the hang of it and get going, we’ll ramp it up. We’re hoping to end up with … just over 50 beds,” she said.

While so called “patient hotels” are new to B.C., officials said they are not new in other parts of the world, such as northern Europe, where they have been in use since the 1990s.

“The research from Europe actually shows that there are positive outcomes for the patients. It promotes patients' independence, more family involvement,” Dr. Van Den Berg said.

Surrey Memorial has long been plagued with overcrowding. Van Den Berg said the transition beds won’t alleviate congestion, but will shift the dial in the right direction.

“It means that those patients in the emergency department who are the sickest in our hospital, they get into acute care beds faster,” she said.

Health Minister Adrian Dix applauds the move.

“We’re not creating a hospital here. None of these are hospital beds. The idea is not to create hospital care. It’s to support care when they leave the hospital,” he said. “It’s great news and really great work by Fraser Health."

Surrey Memorial’s ER sees up to 600 patients a day. Portable buildings were recently moved onto the hospital site to create a temporary pediatric emergency waiting room, but they have not yet opened.

Meanwhile, Surrey Coun. Linda Annis said the changes at Surrey Memorial are a sign of a bigger problem.

“This is just a Band-Aid solution to an overall problem that we have with the number of hospital beds here in Surrey. We have over 600,000 people living here and we’re shy of 800 beds here,” she said. “Surrey is not getting its fair share of hospital beds. We need to be building more."

Fraser Health previously did not have transition beds. The converted motel will run as a pilot project for two years.