'This is unacceptable': New report finds services at Surrey Memorial Hospital 'severely insufficient'

Surrey, B.C. -

A new report says services at Surrey Memorial Hospital are "severely insufficient" and there's growing concern that patient care is suffering.

Close to 1,400 seriously ill patients had to be transferred out of Surrey Memorial last year for life-saving and higher-level care at other hospitals, according to a report titled “Surrey’s Hospital Needs” and prepared for the Surrey Board of Trade.

“Residents can not be treated within our city’s borders for the three leading causes of death, that are heart attacks, strokes and trauma,” said Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade.

Dr. Randeep Gill, a long-time emergency room physician in Surrey, calls it “a severe concern.”

“When we have our sick patients in Surrey, and they all need to be transferred out, that’s going to cause delays in care and the delays in care are going to have the worst outcome for the residents of Surrey,” he said.

Patients from Surrey are often moved to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster or to Vancouver General Hospital.

The SBOT report questions the impact of traffic delays on patient care. And so do health-care professionals.

“When time is of the essence, why should we accept being subjected to the traffic patterns of Metro Vancouver?” asked Gill.

“This is unacceptable,” said Huberman, who added that Fraser Health receives significantly less funding per person than Vancouver.

The report states the number of pediatric beds in Surrey has slumped from 24 to 16 in the last two decades.

“We need to remove the politics from health care decisions,” said Huberman.

Health Minister Adrian Dix blames the previous Liberal government for ignoring Surrey’s needs, but said the NDP has been investing in health care in Surrey.

“We’ve added two urgent and primary care centres, we’ve significantly improved investments in health care in Surrey and we’re not stopping now,” he said.

A new hospital in Cloverdale has also been promised, but it is still years away from opening.

“It’s going to be one of the most significant government of B.C. investments in a hospital in the history of the province,” the minister said. “It’s going to significantly improve things.”

Gill, who is also an assistant professor of emergency medicine and critical care at UBC, said the new Cloverdale hospital won’t be enough.

“It does not solve our pediatric concerns, our maternity concerns. It brings absolutely zero acute care intervention,” he said.

Surrey Memorial has long been a busy hospital, but in a city that grows by about 1,300 people a month, demands on the hospital keep climbing.

“We have outgrown our emergency department. We don’t have the inpatient capacity to take care of our patients and we’re bursting at the seams,” said Gill.

The SBOT has asked for a meeting with the health minister. It is waiting to hear back.