‘Worsening crisis’ at Surrey Memorial Hospital ER: Doctors

Emergency physicians at Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH) released a scathing letter Monday expressing their concerns over the “little response” from Fraser Health despite its recent efforts to address the “deteriorating conditions” in their department.

The letter, signed by the emergency department’s entire staff of physicians and addressed to the CEO of Fraser Health Dr. Victoria Lee, asks why conditions are continuing to deteriorate despite the “thoughtful proposals presented” to them.

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BC Conservatives MLA Elanore Sturko, who shared the letter with 1130 NewsRadio, says doctors at SMH have been calling for action for a long time.

“What’s really disappointing about it is the fact that this is something that doctors actually held a rally about a year ago in Surrey,” she said. “They needed desperately to try to get the Minister to finally recognize that there is a significant problem at the hospital.”

She says a year later the people in Surrey are not getting their “fair share” and are still receiving substandard health care.

SMH’s emergency department says congestion has worsened. The letter states that between 2021 and 2023 there was an average of 61.6 patients. It says from 2023 to the present day, the average sits at 72.8 patients.

Moreover, the ED’s volume has increased by 30 per cent over the past four years “while the size of the department remains unchanged,” according to the letter.

“We are now the busiest ED in Canada and the third busiest in North America,” the letter said, stating that in 2020 – 2021 there were 137,000 ED visits, and in 2023 – 2024 there were 179,000 ED visits.

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SMH says the rate of patients “left without being seen” has tripled since 2020 – 2021 from 2.9 per cent to 8.4 per cent. It also says that the time to see an emergency room doctor for unwell ambulatory patients has exceeded 12 hours, and they’re estimating that to hit 24 hours in the short-term future.

“How does your office justify both the lack of action and lack of transparent acknowledgment, given that these metrics clearly indicate a worsening crisis?” the physicians asked.

Furthermore, SMH’s ED is saying while patient volume has increased by 30 per cent since 2021, staffing has only increased by eight per cent, and over the last year, they have lost eight per cent of their monthly coverage which means there are fewer physicians available to treat more patients.

SMH says new graduates are opting to work in safer departments with lower patient volumes and better pay rather than applying to work at SMH.

SMH is asking Fraser Health to provide an update on “the support (or lack thereof)” for a “staffing stabilization strategy” that they had submitted in June of 2024.

“Although it was not our responsibility to provide a solution, we invested hundreds of hours in creating and presenting a comprehensive strategy to yourself and the Ministry that aimed to improve staffing and patient care at SMH. Unfortunately, these discussions consumed valuable clinical resources and resulted in no meaningful action,” they said.

Finally, SMH ED’s letter compares the hospital to hospitals in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, including Vancouver General, and BC Children’s, where physicians are spending 44 minutes and 39 minutes with their patients, respectively. Whereas, at SMH physicians are only spending 16 minutes on average per patient.

Moreover, the letter states that SMH physicians get compensated less than those in VCH, further aggravating the recruitment and retention of new physicians and FHA physicians reported having less support from their leadership compared to those in VCH.

Fraser Health has acknowledged the concerns raised by the ED at SMH and says it is in the process of thoroughly reviewing the letter and the issues outlined in it. In an email statement to 1130 NewsRadio, it said it understands the seriousness of these concerns and will be responding directly to the physicians involved.

“We remain committed to working collaboratively with all partners, including the Government, Doctors of BC, and other key stakeholders, to enhance health care in the region,” it said.

Fraser Health says it is continuing to work towards long-term solutions that are sustainable for SMH. Its efforts that are already underway include expanding renal services, building a second interventional radiology suite at Surrey Memorial Hospital to enable stroke and cardiac specialty expansion and adding two cardiac catheterization labs at the hospital, the planning in progress for the new acute care tower at Surrey Memorial Hospital and construction underway for the new Surrey hospital and BC Cancer Centre.

The health authority acknowledges that it has “more work to do” but it says that “since July 2023 we posted 575 net new positions for the Surrey Memorial Hospital and Surrey communities, including pediatric emergency, emergency clinical staff, support services and more. Of the 575 new positions, 364 have been filled, including 24 out of 27 new pediatric emergency positions.”

-With files from Anthony Atanasov.