Unsafe conditions at Surrey Memorial Hospital “compel” emergency physicians to write open letter to public

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This letter comes after Doctors of BC Emergency Section sent a press release to media stating that emergency departments across BC hospitals are on high alert
SURREY: The emergency physicians at the Surrey Memoria hospital (SMH) have written an open letter to the citizens of Surrey detailing “unsafe conditions” at the hospital. The letter states, that the doctors have been “compelled” to take this action due to “lack of communication about this crisis to patients and public.”
Fraser Health has repeatedly told ER Physicians to not openly discuss our “challenges” with the public, the doctors said in the letter.
The letter pointed that BC health minister’s feels that conditions are “challenging” however, an important point is missing; “patients are suffering severe adverse outcomes including death at SMH.”
The doctors said that 3 critical issues ailing Fraser Health, have led to these conditions — lack of acute care beds, shortage of hospitalist physicians and politicians’ failure to provide meaningful solutions.
The first is severe shortage of acute care beds which leads to admitted patients wait in ERs instead of on the ward making ERs congested. This also effects nursing support which would normally be used to treat incoming emergencies. “The bed-block forces us to routinely treat strokes, heart attacks, traumas, miscarriages and palliative care in the hallway.”
Shortage of hospitalist physicians is another reason contributing to unsafe conditions. Hospitalist Physicians admit the majority of patients from the ER to the hospital wards. “Today if a patient is admitted from ER to hospital, it is common for them to linger on for days without an admitting physician looking after the; many patients have and some have died while waiting. We believe that some of these horrible outcomes could have been prevented if Hospitalist physicians were available to see patients in timely manner,” wrote doctors in the letter.
According to the letter, ED congestion and staff shortage in SMH has been steadily worsening for years. “We have been repeatedly sounding the alarm bells to our regional and provincial leaders; these alarms have been ignored.”
Adrian Dix, BC’s minister of health, present in Surrey couple of days after the letter went public, to speak about future of health care at a Surrey Board of Trade event. During his address, pushed back these claims saying that this was result of years of neglect under the previous Liberal government and NDP was in fact trying to undo this neglect.
“Fraser Health was particularly badly treated by the previous government, it was. The idea that you would do less MRIs in Fraser Health with 800,000 more people than in Vancouver Coastal Health just showed a secondary priority, and so we’ve changed that,” he said.
He added that he is optimistic emergency room congestion will ease in the province’s fastest growing city when a second Surrey hospital opens in 2027.
The SMH ER physicians letter was released in response to the Doctors of BC Section of Emergency Medicine news last week.
“Our emergency departments are on red alert,” says Dr Gord McInnes, co-president of the Section of Emergency Medicine. “Our patients are suffering, and the doctors struggling to provide their care are tired and distressed. Our patients need and deserve better. They deserve to know that they will be safe, and that they will be cared for when they go to an emergency department for help. The dire situation we are facing now cannot continue.”