Delta mayor bemoans systemic failures behind overnight ER closure

Another overnight closure of the Delta Hospital’s emergency department has the city’s Mayor furious with the health authority.

Fraser Health announced the service interruption just one hour before it was set to begin at 7 p.m. Monday, stating it would ensure all patients already in the ER could be seen before the doctor ended their shift at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The health authority says it was unable to staff the department due to an “unexpected physician illness.”

The ER reopened around 6:30 a.m.

Delta Mayor George Harvie tells 1130 NewsRadio he’s “frustrated” after the third closure this year. He says being given just one hour’s notice isn’t good enough.

“We need something more consistent insofar as ensuring the people in Delta have the ability to go to our emergency room and receive the proper services. But this on-the-spot closures is just something that is really intolerable,” said Harvie.

He’s calling on the provincial government to fix the situation, adding that there are 115,000 people in Delta, and it’s not fair to his tax-paying constituents.

“We do everything possible to make sure that we’re supplementing them with equipment to whatever the doctors need. This community goes out and funds it. But here we are. We can’t even have assurances that the emergency room is going to be open. So I’m very disappointed and we will do everything I can, as mayor and along with my council, to ask the provincial government to fix this. And they shouldn’t just fix it for Delta. They need to fix it for every emergency room in our province.”

The closure comes after a series of ER closures in rural B.C. in recent months and another overnight closure of Mission Memorial Hospital’s ER Sunday night.

Harvie says it’s “unacceptable” to be understaffed with just one doctor falling ill.

“You wouldn’t run a regular business this way. And this is about life and death,” said Harvie.

“This is a system that’s broken, and the province needs to fix it.”

Delta South MLA Ian Paton repeated that sentiment to 1130 NewsRadio.

“One doctor that has to check off for being sick for the evening, you wouldn’t have any backup plan like any sports team would?” he said. “If the pitcher gets hurt, you’ve got a backup pitcher, and if he gets hurt you’ve got another.”

Paton said it is bad enough when ERs close in rural and remote areas but the risks are even greater when those closures come to dense urban centres.

“When it’s in a major urban centre we’re talking about a lot more people in a more dense area,” he said. “As we know in Metro Vancouver our fire trucks are constantly out on the road with their sirens going, and our ambulances.”

He said he’s heard a lot from the province on its hiring blitz of U.S.-based doctors but has yet to see much action.