Surrey Memorial doctor ‘cautiously optimistic’ of hospital expansion promise

Some doctors are feeling a touch of relief after B.C. announced it is taking steps to expand services at the beleaguered Surrey Memorial Hospital.

Emergency Room physician and director of Surrey Hospitals Foundation Dr. Randeep Gill says there is an “absolute” need for a new tower at the site.

“We’re in this situation because we’ve had chronic underfunding not matching our population growth. We need to realize that and understand where we are today, and what got us here, and that’s the only way we’re going to move forward,” he told CityNews’ sister station OMNI News.

Dr. Randeep Gill says the announcement of a new tower at Surrey Memorial Hospital is welcome, but more still needs to be done to address bigger issues at the hospital. (CityNews Image)

Surrey Memorial Hospital has seen a lot of negative attention in recent months, as it has become ground zero for B.C.’s healthcare system crisis.

Open letters from doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff have detailed the severe staffing shortages the hospital is dealing with, along with a deep lack of resources. Some doctors reported the situation has been so bad, it could take some patients as long as three days to get a diagnosis and transfer to a proper ward.

On Wednesday, the provincial government announced its plan to expand services at the site, along with a previous commitment to build a second hospital in Surrey.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the expansion will increase the capacity for more inpatient and outpatient care, surgeries, and clinical programs at the hospital.

But Gill says the immediate thing that would significantly help the hospital is “that the contract for the hospitalist service needs to get done. That is the one thing that is impacting patient care, currently.”

However, Gill says he and other doctors at the city’s hospital are “cautiously optimistic.”

“We have to stay within the positive realm and take it at face value. We have to support our government because this is a cohesive relationship, [and] we have to move forward, together,” he said.

Meanwhile, taking a tour of Surrey Memorial Thursday, B.C.’s opposition leader Kevin Falcon blasted the provincial government for failing to expand on the hospital quickly enough.

“When we built this $500 million expansion, it was built with the plans to allow for an easy extension to an additional tower that would take place right next to the Dairy Queen there.

“And that is critical because we need the extra acute care beds and we need to expand the pediatrics, the obstetrics, the stroke care and cardiac care, which the patients and surgery need,” the BC United leader said.

Falcon says that making residents in the region travel to get the healthcare they need is “unacceptable.”

“This is a tertiary hospital, meaning it’s a referral center. The problem is, when patients get referred here from Delta, Langley, or Peace Arch, they have to be sent again out of Surrey to New Westminster or to Vancouver.”

He says it’s clear that the NDP isn’t addressing the issues fast enough.

“When Adrian Dix comes here and talks about changes 18 months from now, [it is] not acceptable. The additional cath labs that he talked about, the additional IR suite, he talked about 18 months from now are not acceptable. That’s gonna start happening immediately,” said the leader of the Opposition.