ER doctors at 2 more B.C. hospitals say staffing crisis leaves patients with 'undignified' care

Dozens of emergency doc‐ tors from two more hospi‐ tals in B.C.'s Lower Main‐ land have joined a chorus of emergency room physi‐ cians speaking out about the dire situation inside their hospital depart‐ ments, pushing the total number of staff who've spoken out in the last two weeks alone to more than 70.

A group of physicians from Royal Columbian Hospital and Eagle Ridge Hospital wrote a joint letter saying they don't see an end to on‐ going staffing shortages leav‐ ing vulnerable patients wait‐ ing for days without ade‐ quate, "dignified" care.

"The standard of what we accept as being a 'bad day' continues to get worse," one physician said in an interview with CBC News.

"Oftentimes before we even get into the emergency department, we see a lineup of ambulances waiting to of‐ fload patients. On our way to our office, we see hallways lined with stretchers — pa‐ tients who have clearly been there for hours waiting to be seen," they continued.

"Sometimes we hear peo‐ ple crying out in pain and dis‐ comfort, and that's before we've even started our shift."

The doctors — whose hos‐ pitals are in New Westminster and Port Moody, respectively — form Fraser Health's largest emergency team. CBC News has agreed to withhold their identities because they're concerned about repercussions from their employer.

Their page-long letter fol‐ lows a similar one from Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH) physicians who claimed health officials have refused to publicly admit the scale of an ER staffing crisis that has patients waiting — and sometimes dying — in their hallways.

All 3 hospitals need more house doctors, physi‐ cians say

Staff from all three hospi‐ tals said it's the same straw breaking the camel's back: a lack of hospitalists, or house doctors, to care for pa‐ tients beyond the emergency room.

ER doctors are only meant to diagnose and stabilize pa‐ tients so they can be admit‐ ted to the appropriate ward for fulsome treatment, they explained. Without enough hospitalists admitting patients to that next ward, patients get stuck in the ER.

Emergency physicians end up caring for those lingering patients, all while new ones keep flowing in the door. It all leads to what doctors de‐ scribed as a dangerous log jam.

"This is really a patient safety issue that the health authority and our elected government is failing to rec‐ ognize the severity and critical nature of — and failing to re‐ act with the urgency that's re‐ quired," said one doctor, adding that they routinely treat patients in hallways.

"We're concerned there's a real chance of patient harm."

WATCH | Senior physi‐ cian at Surrey hospital speaks about conditions that are leaving staff 'wor‐ ried sick':

Most of newly expanded ER going unused

At Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody, the staffing problems go beyond hospital‐ ists.

Two doctors who spoke with CBC News said twothirds of a newly expanded hospital ward sit empty for extended periods of time be‐ cause the hospital doesn't have enough nurses to staff the space properly.

The intermittent closures leave overwhelmed doctors walking past an unusable new ward, lights off and beds emp‐ ty, while they face a waiting room packed with patients.

"Effectively those beds don't exist ... It is incredibly frustrating," the physician said.

The new ward, approxi‐ mately three times larger than the original, was com‐ pleted less than a year ago and most recently closed this past weekend.

WATCH | ER doctors say B.C.'s busiest hospital is 'unsafe'

CBC News has contacted Fraser Health for comment on the letter from RCH and Eagle Ridge.

Responding to concerns from the team in Surrey on Wednesday, the health au‐ thority acknowl‐ edged "longer-than-normal wait times" for patients and said recruitment staff are fo‐ cusing on hospitalists, inter‐ nal medicine physicians and nurse practitioners.

"We know long waits can be challenging for patients and their families, and we thank them for their contin‐ ued patience and kindness during visits to our Emer‐ gency Departments," an email read.

In response to the SMH letter this month, Health Min‐ ister Adrian Dix acknowledged workers' "frustration" and said the province was "active‐ ly" working to hire more hos‐ pitalists.

The ministry has previous‐ ly promised more spaces in medical school classes, but doctors who spoke in an in‐ terview said those fresh physicians won't hit the ground for a decade.

"Our feeling is really that the government needs to find ways to attract and retain skilled and experienced emerged nurses [and hospi‐ talists], because what's hap‐ pening right now is just not cutting it," they said.