B.C.’s Health Minister Adrian Dix said government officials will be meeting with emergency room doctors and staff at Surrey Memorial Hospital later this week after doctors sent a scathing letter to Fraser Health CEO Victoria Lee.
“We are making very significant progress, all of that progress was based on meetings with the staff at Surrey Memorial Hospital,” Dix said.
He said that 472 net new staff have been recruited to Surrey Memorial Hospital.
“The emergency room doctors share my commitment to recruitment,” Dix added.
This comes one day after a group of emergency physicians at Surrey Memorial Hospital sent a letter to Fraser Health CEO Victoria Lee saying deteriorating conditions at the ER are leading to substandard care for patients.
The doctors said emergency department visits have gone up by 30 per cent over the past four years while the size of the department remains unchanged.
They also said the rate of patients leaving the ER without being seen has tripled since 2020-21.
“Yes there’s population growth but there’s also recruitment and retention of talent and that’s really important to recognize,” Dr. Claudine Storness-Bliss, an ob-gyn at Surrey Memorial Hospital, told Global News.
“That’s been a particular problem in Surrey because we see such a high acuity of cases, meaning complex sick people who really need help.”
Fraser Health told Global News it is reviewing the letter and that it understands the seriousness of the concerns.
It said it will be responding directly to the physicians involved.