Community members in Surrey will soon have better access to health care, according to the province.
The B.C. Ministry of Health and Fraser Health announced they have hired hundreds of new health-care workers, which include doctors and nurses for Surrey Memorial Hospital.
They also announced planning has been completed for a new renal hemodialysis building at the hospital.
Hospital staff are also being temporarily moved as work begins for two new cardiac catheterization suites and a second interventional radiology suite.
“Since June 2023, Fraser Health and the Ministry of Health have collaborated with staff and medical staff to move quickly on solutions we committed to in our 30-point plan to meet the evolving care needs of Surrey’s growing population,” said Adrian Dix, minister of health.
“Together, we have made substantial progress on these key actions that will strengthen our public health system in Surrey, and connect people with care closer to home for heart, kidney and other complex health conditions.”
In June 2023, Dix promised to expand Surrey Memorial Hospital. The province also announced 30 measures to address grievances in Surrey health care, after “years of neglect.”
In the coming weeks, pre-construction will begin on the hemodialysis building, which will be in the northwest corner of the Surrey Memorial Hospital campus.
It will have state-of-the-art equipment and will be able to treat more patients with kidney disease by adding 21 new beds — bringing the total up to 60.
When it comes to the “30-action plan,” the Ministry of Health said 13 have been completed and 17 are in progress.
A list of accomplishments was provided by the province, which includes:
- Expanded the internal medicine bed capacity from 30 beds to 90 beds.
- Implemented a Child and Youth Mental Health Emergency Response Team for Surrey Memorial Hospital and Fraser South.
- Filled 15 security officer positions at Surrey Memorial Hospital that are now working.
- Recruited 21 new resident clinical associates.
- Recruited 75 internationally educated nurses to enhance staffing levels at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
- Recruited 70 physicians to work at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
- Hired 117 new nursing graduates and 164 employed student nurses at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
- Implemented an expanded overflow waiting area for Surrey Memorial Hospital’s pediatric emergency department.
- Opened a new transitional housing space that provides accommodations for patients who require a short stay in a transitional housing environment.
- Enhanced Fraser Health’s successful in-house learning institute to close critical gaps in allied staff and nursing.
The province said more than 50 additional nursing seats have been enrolled to date and the Health Career Access Program in acute care has expanded to 66 program seats from 50.
“The dynamic growth and transformation of the Surrey community underscore the importance of the significant strides we have taken in implementing our 30 priority actions,” said Dr. Victoria Lee, Fraser Health’s president and CEO.
“These actions are laying the foundation for expanded, accessible health services to support our patients and their families, while equipping our staff and medical staff to deliver exceptional care for many years to come.”
In September 2023, Surrey Memorial physicians held a rally in the Surrey Civic Plaza outside city hall. Hundreds of community members attended the rally.
The rally, which was led by Dr. Randeep Gill, Surrey Hospitals Foundation’s director, said health-care services in the city have been underfunded for decades.
“These are decades of issues, decades of chronic underfunding and we look forward to the response from the (province),” Gill said.
“We can’t treat the three leading causes of death here in the south of the Fraser. We need acute care beds. We are decades behind.”
The protest followed letters from dozens of physicians at Surrey Memorial Hospital in the spring, warning of a resource crisis that, over time, has led to “unsafe conditions” and “poor outcomes” for patients.
Just days after the rally, the province announced that ground had been broken on a long-awaited second hospital, which has a completion date of 2029.
Premier David Eby said the start of construction on the new $2.88-billion hospital and cancer treatment centre is a much-needed health-care expansion in one of the province’s fastest-growing communities.
“This will be the largest capital investment south of the Fraser in our province’s history,” Eby touted on Sept. 12, 2023.
“It will add a second emergency room in the city of Surrey, a surgical and imaging department — it will have the latest in health-care technology.”
The facility will have 168 beds, 55 emergency department treatment spaces, a surgical and perioperative suite with five operating rooms, a pharmacy, a full-service laboratory and academic spaces. The cancer care centre will also have 54 chemotherapy treatment spaces and a 50-room oncology ambulatory care unit.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the complex is designed to complement and work in conjunction with the Surrey Memorial Hospital. The second hospital will not have a maternity ward or cardiac catheterization lab, the latter of which was recently promised as an addition to Surrey Memorial.
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