BC Children’s Hospital wait time hits 9 hours Sunday

As the province’s healthcare system continues to show cracks, things came to a head Sunday when BC Children’s Hospital had a wait time of nearly nine hours.

One family doctor told CityNews this is a foreshadowing event for an expected terrible flu season for children, and these kinds of wait times aren’t normal.

“We assess them, we treat them, in and out … half a day’s stay is not right. That’s not what the emergency department is for,” Dr. Anna Wolak said.

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Wolak believes the massive delay may be because of a backlog in admissions, as hospitals are particularly full at the moment. The sharp rise in children getting the flu and other respiratory viruses could also be affecting wait times.

“They’re starting to describe this as a ‘tri-demic’ of COVID, flu, and RSV, and so there are respiratory viruses going around and our kids are getting sicker,” she said.

She says the flu season is just getting started and worries if something isn’t done to help the healthcare system, these types of long wait times in emergency rooms will just get worse.

“This is the children’s version of March 2020. And I can just see the pressure on our hospitals getting worse as we enter the respiratory season, and things are not done about this.”