new letter says
Medical Staff Association says current situation leaves patients ‘in jeopardy’
By:Rhianna Schmunk · CBC News ·
Last Updated: May 30
A new letter from the association representing doctors at Surrey Memorial Hospital has called on health-care leaders to either fill vacant positions in the emergency room or shut down the department to new patients.
The cutting letter from the Medical Staff Association at SMH said an ongoing shortage of hospitalists, or house doctors, has made it “increasingly difficult, if not impossible,” for doctors to give patients the level of care they need. “Your continued silence and inaction on this issue is placing the health and well-being of Surrey residents in jeopardy,” read the letter, addressed to Fraser Health CEO Dr. Victoria Lee, Health Minister Adrian Dix and other leaders.
“We implore you to take immediate action to bolster the availability of hospitalists physicians to the ED at SMH, and if you cannot do this, the only responsible recourse is to place the Surrey Memorial Hospital ER on diversion.”
Doctors of B.C. says ERs across province ‘overrun’, urgent action needed
The letter was sent May 19 and obtained by CBC News on Tuesday. The association said it has not received a response from Lee or Dix. “It’s disheartening and it’s disappointing. One of the things that we want is at least an acknowledgement of what is happening,” said association president Dr. Roopjeet Kahlon. Hospitals are put on diversion when they are too overwhelmed to safely accommodate new patients. On diversion, emergency departments do not accept incoming patients until it recovers to a more manageable patient load. “Unless you can immediately bolster the physician availability in that emergency department to see the volume coming in, it doesn’t make sense to continue to keep the doors open and say, ‘You can come, and you will be given the highest quality of care,’ and then expect the physicians on the ground to figure out how to make that happen,” Kahlon said in an interview with CBC’s On The Coast.
“If you can’t immediately address at least the basics, the only responsible thing to do is to put the hospital ER on diversion.”
ER diversion not necessary, minister says
In an interview on Tuesday, Dix said the province has an “offer on the table” to settle stalled contract negotiations with potential hospitalists for SMH and other hospitals.
The minister said hospital demand has been high in the region since January when daily patient numbers reached record heights during flu season. “There is absolutely no question that Fraser Health hospitals are doing more emergency room visits, more surgeries, more diagnostic care than at any time in the past, and this is very challenging after three years of pandemic,” said Dix.
“So when people raise issues, you bet we respond, and we listen to what they say.”
The minister said he does not have plans to put Surrey’s ER on diversion.
“I don’t think that’s required,” he said.
A dangerous log jam happening in ER, doctors say
In their own letters this month, doctors running Surrey’s emergency room explained why the lack of house doctors has pushed their units past the breaking point.
ER doctors are only meant to diagnose and stabilize patients so they can be admitted to the appropriate ward for comprehensive treatment. Without enough hospitalists admitting patients to the next ward, patients end up stranded in the ER for as long as three days. It’s left to emergency physicians to care for those lingering patients, as new ones keep coming in the door, leading to what doctors described as a dangerous traffic jam. “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 is rising in our overcrowded and understaffed ER,” the association’s letter read.
Earlier Tuesday, leading doctors from SMH met with politicians and other community stakeholders at city hall in hopes of finding solutions to the resourcing “crisis.”
The Surrey Hospitals Foundation said the meeting was closed to the public, but community leaders spoke outside city hall before it started.
“The letter that we saw yesterday was absolutely beyond gut-wrenching. It was tragic, and it shows how far we have fallen in health-care in Surrey,” said Trevor Halford, the MLA for Surrey-White Rock.
“To say that I’m concerned would be a complete understatement,” added Surrey South MLA Elenore Sturko. “I am very concerned for the well-being of our health-care providers and the well-being of our community.”
Another letter from nearly 40 doctors in obstetrics and gynecology at SMH said resourcing problems have led to “countless near misses” with patient safety and the death of a newborn in 2021. The physicians also said B.C. Women’s Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver receive more department funding, despite seeing fewer OBGYN patients than SMH.
“Surrey’s [population] growth has been tremendous, there’s no doubt about that, but when we look at where dollars are spent by the provincial and federal governments, it’s north of the Fraser [River] every single time,” Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke said outside city hall on Tuesday.
Former mayor Dianne Watts said local health care saw “significant” investments during her tenure but echoed Locke in saying funding has not kept pace with population growth. Source: cbc.ca/news
Miracle’s Note:
In the above 3 month ago newsletter, were there any significant changes that came in the Doctor’s visit in Emergency? Every resident of Surrey, Delta, is passing their 6 to 10 hours waiting period and treatment experience, while the city’s population grew by more than nine percent between 2016 and 2021, reaching 560,000 people, and today is Sept 2023.
Toronto patients waiting for hospital beds watched for 48 hours as ER staff dealt with a flood of sick patients in 2023 and only one hospital is serving.
A Toronto woman who waited 48 hours in an urban emergency unit can attest to the crisis doctors and nurses say is crippling emergency rooms.
“Until you are in it, you don’t really understand how desperate and critical it is. Why everyone is not up in arms … that just is stunning. It’s unbelievable,” said Siobhan Mitchell. She says she went to emergency in mid-August and was admitted for urgent gallbladder surgery, but there were no beds.
Hidden Harms Of Er Overcrowding
Emergency units are designed to work like a tube where patients go in and are quickly assessed, treated or moved to rehab, a hospital bed or home. They are not designed for people to stay there for long periods. As new emergency cases come in, there is nowhere to care for them.
Doctors reported to CTV News they’ve treated patients in waiting room chairs and bathrooms. One doctor even said he resuscitated a patient in the EMS van because there was no room to revive the patient in the ER. “We … have to see patients in these unconventional spaces, like driveways, like closets, that patients don’t expect and they certainly deserve better,” said Varner. Nurses too report added stress caring for additional patients in ERs.
SOLUTIONS
Everyone CTV News spoke to agreed that while COVID-19 made things worse in hospitals, it isn’t the sole reason behind the overcrowded ERs.
The rise in demand is linked to a growing and aging population, as well as staffing shortages caused by an exodus of nursing and medical staff during the pandemic. More in-hospital beds is clearly one solution, Varner said, who points to data from the OECD showing Canada has among the lowest hospital bed-to-population ratios of some developed countries. ”Why are there not more acute care hospital beds and staff to care for patients that need hospitalization and why are we not trying to retain our experienced hospital staff, who unfortunately have been burned out through the course of the pandemic and the years that have followed? These are questions that I asked often and don’t receive a lot of answers to,” Varner said.
Worrall agrees there are also inefficient hospital systems that need to be redesigned.
“Money is very welcome throughout the system, but I don’t believe it will have a meaningful impact on emergency department crowding. Because we’re going to keep doing things the same way we always have, we’re not going to change the way we choose to move patients through the system,” he said.
Earlier this year, the federal government gave the provinces and territories an immediate, unconditional $2-billion Canada Health Transfer on top of a record $198.6 billion to address immediate pressures on the health care system. But there were no strings attached on how it would be used.
“As a health-care team, we are disheartened, dispirited and have lost all hope that our leaders even understand the magnitude of the issues that face us. God help us all,” said veteran ER doctor Alan Drummond, the past president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. His group is calling for a national forum to come up with a cross-country plan to fix the problem fast.
“This would not allow each provincial government to … continue the current approach … with no chance of success,” he said.
Source: ctvnews.ca/health
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
