Two doctors at Surrey Memorial Hospital are renewing their calls for immediate, concrete action to address the city’s health-care crisis, saying the new $2.88-billion hospital planned for Cloverdale won’t meet the region’s current needs – let alone when it’s completed in 2030.
Dr. Randeep Gill, an ER physician who held a rally outside Surrey City Hall in September, said that six months later, he isn’t seeing enough urgency from decision-makers to address the strain on the hospital as the city continues to grapple with rapid growth.
“I don’t think that the politicians and decision-makers locally and provincially have been held accountable or are put to the task of fixing this issue,” Gill said.
“We rely on the politicians and the decision-makers to make the appropriate decisions and unfortunately, over time, we’re not seeing that because the population is growing at a vast capacity, but yet we’re not seeing the resources that are following that.”
Data from the Surrey Hospitals Foundation shows Surrey is the only major city in Canada whose health-care system is unable to treat the three leading causes of sudden death: heart attack, stroke and trauma.
“The number of patients that we see is close to 180,000 patients a year and from there, there’s a percentage that are critically ill,” Gill said.
“None of those patients can be treated here, so all those patients need to go and be transferred for a higher level of care.”
On average, that results in nearly 1,400 transfers a year, with most patients taken by ambulance to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. The top three reasons for transfer were for heart, stroke and pediatric specialty care – not surprising, considering the foundation says the city has B.C.’s highest burden of disease in the adult and pediatric populations.
“There just seems to be an acceptance of poor care south of the Fraser. It seems to be okay that those patients need to be transferred. And that’s where the frustration lies, not only amongst myself but also all the other care providers within the hospital,” Gill said.
His concerns are shared by the Surrey Board of Trade. The organization estimates that with 1,200 to 1,400 people moving to the city each month, Surrey is on track to surpass Vancouver’s population by 2029.
In a May 2023 report, the Surrey Hospitals Foundation says Surrey Memorial is not adequately funded for the tertiary services that it’s mandated to provide for Surrey and non-refusal sites south of the Fraser River, including Peach Arch, Langley Memorial, and Delta hospitals.
The report goes on to state that Vancouver, with a population of 662,000, has direct access to more than 3,000 acute care beds, compared to Surrey with a population of 604,000 serviced by one hospital with 634 beds. At one bed per thousand residents, that puts Surrey well below the national average of 2.5 beds per thousand residents. The city’s capacity will jump to 802 beds once the new hospital and cancer care centre open in 2030.
The disparity in health-care delivery between Surrey and Vancouver is further amplified when comparing the dollars spent per patient by Vancouver Coastal Health vs. the Fraser Health Authority. The Surrey Board of Trade’s review of the 2020/2021 audited statements of funding show that the Fraser Health Authority received $2,229 per person, while Vancouver Coastal Health received $3,033 per person.
In the maternity ward
While Surrey has the highest birth rate in B.C., Surrey Memorial has the province’s busiest maternity ward. But Dr. Maged Bakhet, a veteran obstetrician and gynecologist, said he was stunned to learn the new hospital won’t include a maternity ward.
“It’s really shocking. We’ve been lobbying for more beds and more resources to the maternity unit, and then they end up doing another day-surgery hospital, which doesn’t provide any maternity help,” he said. “We have a crisis going on to accommodate patients to have a room, a simple room. Patients deliver in triage … we are in a crisis.”
More than 6,000 babies a year are born in Surrey, but Bakhet says the ward only has the capacity to deliver about 4,000 babies, meaning it runs over capacity or is on diversion almost daily.
“Every time I step down to the unit now, I am just praying to God to end my shift safely and (that) I’m experienced enough,” he said.
“Every time I step in, for the past about five years, I’m praying to God to end my shift and get out of here.”
When asked about Bakhet’s concerns, Fraser Health CEO Dr. Victoria Lee told Global News the birth rate is actually stabilizing or decreasing in the region.
Her communications staff followed up after the interview to add that construction is underway to turn six single postpartum rooms into double occupancy rooms, expanding the maternity unit from 42 to 48 beds.
However, Bakhet said to meet the current demand, the number of beds would need to double or triple.
“Allocation of resources is my problem. If you have a crisis going on in maternity, that’s not something small. We deal with a mom and baby. We’re dealing with women’s health. Solve that crisis first and then all the resources available after that (can be) directed to whatever is needed,” he said.
“When you work in a place where you feel unsafe, it is never safe for the patient. You have to feel safe in order to provide safe care.”
Focus on cancer care
The Ministry of Health and the Fraser Health Authority say they are making significant progress on the recommendations from last year’s Surrey Health Summit, having completed 13 out of the 30 actions. One of those actions include two new cardiac catheterization labs, which Health Minister Adrian Dix said will be operational in 18 to 24 months.
“It’s true that, for a generation, Surrey had been neglected and we’re responding to that with massive investments,” he told Global News.
He said the provincial government is looking ahead to an impending wave of cancer cases as the population of Surrey grows older.
“With the second hospital and cancer centre, Surrey will be the only community in B.C. with two cancer centres, at a time when Surrey’s population of older people will increase significantly,” he said. “We’ll see more age-related cancer in Surrey.”
He said many of the pressures felt at Surrey Memorial will be alleviated once the new facilities open in 2030. They will include 168 new beds, inpatient and outpatient care, an emergency department with 55 treatment spaces, surgical services, and 54 chemotherapy treatment spaces.
On Thursday, Dix held a news conference to announce a new renal hemodialysis facility at the hospital that will add 21 new renal services beds.
“So with all of these things, we’ve probably taken more initiatives and invested more money in Surrey, and obviously we’re going to be doing a lot more in the next few years. A lot of that was in direct response to the concerns of doctors and nurses and health-care workers, but also the community,” he said.
The other major challenge is staffing, but Dix said his ministry is making headway.
“The most important part of it is making sure that we have the doctors and the nurses and the health sciences professionals we need. Since I’ve been minister of health, we’ve added 38,000 (staff) to the health-care system.”
At the ballot box
With the provincial election approaching in October, Dr. Gill is hoping the attention on Surrey’s health-care crisis will bring the community together to demand equitable resources.
“I’m hoping that the politicians feel the fire and feel the heat and make the change,” he said.
“I hope that the residents south of the Fraser come together and really push the provincial government to make the right choices. You can’t always win, can’t always get everything that you need. We all understand that, but we need a plan.”
Bakhet echoed the sentiment, saying all he wants is for decision-makers to take immediate action.
“We are asking whoever is in power to take us seriously and to rectify the disaster that is going to happen,” he said.
“Disasters have been happening, but it is not well known to everybody and therefore, we just want to cut our losses and try to save human life.”
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