Emergency room closures hit B.C.’s Lower Mainland

The emergency room at Delta’s hospital is now open after a two-night partial closure over the weekend.

Smaller rural communities across B.C. have been dealing with emergency room closures for months, if not years, but it is not as common in the Lower Mainland.

Fraser Health first sent out a notice on Saturday evening stating “that due to physician staffing challenges at Delta Hospital, Fraser Health is implementing a temporary service interruption beginning at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 22 to Sunday, February 23 at 7:00 a.m.”

A second service interruption notice was sent out on Sunday evening and lasted until 6:30 a.m. on Monday.

Emergency-trained nurses remained on site to provide basic first aid and assist with directing patients to other hospitals.

Staffing challenges previously led to closures at Mission’s hospital earlier this month.

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The union representing B.C.’s paramedics told Global News they are not getting any advance notice from BC Emergency Health Services, adding that if they had known, they could have added more staff on the weekend to help.

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Ian Tait with Ambulance Paramedics of BC said they are left to “plug the holes in the dam.

“We’re doing the best we can,” he said. “Our members, when they are given opportunity or given notice, do step up, day after day, across the province.”

Delta Coun. Dylan Kruger said the situation is frustrating.

“Keeping hospitals open, keeping emergency rooms open is a basic, fundamental role of government and if we can’t do that, we’ve got much larger systemic issues,” he said.

Health Minister Josie Osbourne said on Monday that the Fraser Health Authority did “everything possible” to avoid having to temporarily close the emergency room.

She said the province is making progress on ensuring hospitals have adequate staffing levels but admitted there is more work to be done.

Interior Health also closed emergency rooms in Merritt and Clearwater due to nursing staff shortages and patients from both communities were directed to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.