B.C. MLA concerned about ER closures caused by staffing challenges

A BC Conservative MLA says she’s concerned about staffing challenges that nearly caused a Lower Mainland hospital’s emergency department to temporarily close over the weekend.

MLA for South Surrey Elenore Sturko says the ER at Peace Arch Hospital narrowly avoided shutting down overnight on Friday.

“It’s extremely alarming because the urban hospitals are serving tens of thousands of people, and there’s been more than 200 closures of hospital ERs across the province,” she said.

Sturko says she wasn’t aware that partial diversion was still happening at Peach Arch until some people working for the Fraser Health Authority let her know.

She says they wanted her to know that although Fraser Health had averted the closure of Peace Arch’s ER they were still diverting ambulances from the hospital.

“They were not accepting some of the serious patients that were being brought in ambulances, they were being sent to other hospitals instead,” Sturko said.

Sturko says the healthcare system needs changes that are not just “throwing more money at it.” She says the spread of resources across the province must be looked at.

“Allocation-wise, pulling doctors from elsewhere and putting them in these hospitals that are struggling a bit,” she said. “We need to start looking at ways that we can ensure that every community that has an expectation where there would be hospital services, that we do everything that we can to keep them open and in the long term.”

Sturko says the problem starts right at the top with the Minister of Health and how “our healthcare system is currently being run.”

She says she’s glad that healthcare workers are continuing despite “almost completely insurmountable odds here to keep hospitals going.”

“It’s time for change so that we can finally give some respite to healthcare workers who are being stretched beyond their limits,” she said.

Sturko tells 1130 NewsRadio that Peach Arch Hospital is not an overflow hospital for Surrey Memorial. Rather it is a hospital that is for a portion of the people of Surrey and White Rock. She says when Peace Arch goes on diversion, people in South Surrey and White Rock are left to seek care from neighbouring hospitals.

“When the maternity (department) was on diversion for months and months, those individuals end up having to go to Surrey Memorial or Langley Memorial,” she said. “Those two hospitals are already themselves over capacity.”

“When one shuts down, the cascading impact is that it just continues to drive up demand at the other hospitals and create an even more exacerbated crisis in those hospitals.”

Sturko says there is a problem of “denial” and lack of effort into restructuring and transforming the healthcare system.

-With files from Srushti Gangdev.