Putting Surrey Memorial Hospital's ER on diversion may be the only 'responsible recourse,' staff letter says
Frontline health-care workers at Surrey Memorial Hospital say the emergency room should be shut down to new patients if staff shortages continue to create "perilous" conditions for people in need of urgent care.
In a letter provided to CTV News Tuesday, the Medical Staff Association at the Fraser Health region's largest hospital says it has become difficult and near impossible to provide adequate care due to a shortage of physicians that leaders failed to plan for, and continue to fail in responding to.
"We write this letter not from a place of animosity or retribution, but as people entrusted with advocating for the right of our patients to timely, equitable, high-quality healthcare when they are the most sick and in need of this service. Your continued silence and inaction on this issue is placing the health and well-being of Surrey residents in jeopardy," it reads.
"We implore you to take immediate action to bolster the availability of hospitalists physicians to the ER at SMH and if you cannot do this the only responsible recourse is to place the Surrey Memorial Hospital ER on diversion."
Emergency doctors, the letter says, are being forced to practice outside of their scope by tending to patients in the ER and patients who have been admitted.
"It should come as no surprise then to anyone paying attention that patient care is being compromised, patients are deteriorating, and the number of preventable deaths are rising in our overcrowded and understaffed ER," the letter continues.
SMH is the largest in the region, servicing more than 160,000 ER visits a year.
A closure would have a widespread effect.
Earlier this week, dozens of obstetricians and gynecologists also issued a letter saying the hospital was in crisis.
The document says staffing shortages have led to an untold number of close calls and even the death of a newborn baby.
According to the group, patients often lack access to effective pain management and don't receive necessary privacy during or after childbirth.
Surrey Memorial was built to accommodate 4,000 births per year, but the average is now at 6,000.
"Some outcomes are preventable and those are the ones that are really taking a toll on people. I'm seeing people go part time, leaving labour and delivery entirely,” said Claudine Storness-Bliss, an obstetrician-gynecologist who signed the open letter.
The president and CEO of Fraser Health Authority says a review is underway in the case of the infant death, but provided no further details.
"We are at a point where we do need to transform our care and a big part of that is change, and with change it's not going to be seamless or smooth,” said Dr. Victoria Lee.
She is set to meet with Dix on Wednesday.
PROBLEMS EXTEND BEYOND SURREY
The letters issued this week are the latest to shed light on the crisis unfolding in the emergency departments at Fraser Health's hospitals.
Emergency doctors at the sister hospitals of Royal Columbian and Eagle Ridge have sent an open letter warning their community of “the critical situation that is currently creating risk for our patients and undermining our ability to provide timely and safe, quality care” that has left them “at a breaking point.”
They say patients who need admission to hospital for further treatment are waiting up to 72 hours in chairs or hallways, “negatively affecting patient care, putting patients at risk of unnecessary harm” due to the shortage of hospitalist doctors and nurses.
They are strikingly similar to the concerns raised by Surrey Memorial Hospital doctors last week, who say patients have died while waiting for care. Another doctor has urged his colleagues to advise patients to avoid Langley Memorial Hospital, which he described as “near collapse.”
On Tuesday, the health authority announced it has begun providing online information about wait times and posted a statement to its website apologizing for delays in access to care.
"We are experiencing higher patient volumes right now, coupled with hospitalist medicine and human resources challenges," an update on the health authority's website says.
"We are working to support our patients moving through the emergency departments in the safest and fastest way possible to reduce emergency department congestion."
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Penny Daflos, Abigail Turner and Regan Hasegawa.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.