Fraser Health doctors incentivized to help Surrey Memorial Hospital

It’s the latest attempt by British Columbia’s biggest health authority to deal with an ongoing, critical staffing shortage at its beleaguered Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH).

CityNews has learned the Fraser Health Authority (FHA) is emailing doctors several times a day to financially incentivize them to jump from facility to facility. The emails don’t just include an ask for help, which CityNews has previously reported — there are now perks being offered.

The doctors being targeted work under the umbrella of internal medicine and are being asked to work all hours, like evenings, overnights, and weekends. The email shows they make $202 an hour and now they’re being offered a $500 bonus to pick up shifts at three local hospitals deemed to have the most need: Surrey Memorial, which has been a hotbed of problems for months. Langley Memorial Hospital (LMH) and Abbotsford Regional Hospital (ARH).

If a doctor who is not local agrees to pitch in, they’ll also get free parking, have their gas paid for, and receive free accommodation.

The Fraser Health Authority (FHA) is emailing doctors several times a day to financially encourage them to work at Surrey Memorial Hospital. (Supplied)

A pair of local doctors who’ve received this offer spoke to CityNews, who say $500 is not enough for the extra workload and stress they’d have to deal with, which is in addition to the ongoing struggle of maintaining patient care at their own hospital.

“You feel like dying after a shift at Surrey Memorial because things are so bad,” one doctor, who spoke to CityNews anonymously, said.

Another doctor calls this is a band-aid solution to a multi-layered problem. They think this may work for a few weeks or months, but in the long term, there are deep concerns doctors will, if they haven’t already, burn out. There are also worries about summer shifting, which is typically challenging.

They say doctors at the hospitals needing help feel shafted because they’re doing the same work and not getting the extra incentives.

One of the doctors suggests one fix to the staffing problem is getting a deal done with the province and hospitalists — the general practitioners working in hospitals who quarterback patient care once someone is moved out of the ER and play a key role in ensuring hospitals run smoothly.

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We’ve also been told many of those GPs are leaving their role and setting up their own practice, which can be less of a headache and includes regular hours, or are simply going elsewhere. That staffing shortage, which already includes doctors and nurses, is only adding to the problem.

Another solution, we’re being told, is medical school students who are graduating this weekend. We’ve learned some already have jobs lined up, while others were offered a role a year before finishing their program. One doctor hopes that will help fill the gap created by upcoming hospital expansion, including at SMH and Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH).

One of the doctors feels there is a lack of understanding on the part of the province which isn’t grasping how difficult it is to care for patients in a hospital setting, adding people are typically much sicker or are dying.

“It’s very intense,” said one of the doctors, who also wished to remain anonymous.

CityNews has reached out to the Fraser Health Authority and the province for comment.