More front–line physicians are speaking out about what they see as a crisis in some of B.C.’s busiest hospitals.
Dr. Greg Lewis, a vascular surgeon at Abbotsford Regional Hospital, described the situation there as being on the verge of collapse.
“Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre provides tertiary care to about 600,000 people from Langley through Hope and surrounding communities,” he said.
“We provide cancer agency care, including diagnostic radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgical care. We have advanced obstetric care for high-risk pregnancies with neonatal ICUs. It is the only dialysis site in this part of the Fraser Health. The only vascular surgical site providing repair of arteries. And we also provide advanced cardiology with pacemakers and diagnostic cardiology.”
Lewis said the hospital was bought about 15 years ago and was too small then.
“So we are now running to overcapacity and breakdown of services on the medical wards,” he said.
“At least 30 to 40 per cent of patients are housed in beds in corridors, in toilets, in storerooms. They’re not in wards. It’s simply unsafe.
“An interventional radiology suite has been down for over a year. This is critical for the service of vascular as well as the cancer agency and the dialysis unit. Currently, if we have an inpatient on the surgical ward waiting for an intervention before we can do surgery, that wait is somewhere between seven to 10 days, and that’s occupying a hospital bed that we can’t afford.”
Abbotsford’s Regional Hospital is also a no refusal site, meaning it is required to accept patients, despite the hospital being full.
Lewis said doctors have approached Fraser Health and hospital administrators, along with government officials and Adrian Dix, who served as health minister in the government.
In a statement to Global News, Fraser Health said the government is in a caretaker mode during the provincial election and interregnum period, so it is limited to “critical health and public safety information.
“Fraser Health has invested almost $30 million in the past five years on capital investments at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre, and over $22 million in clinical staffing support with the addition of 167 full-time staff,” the statement reads.
This includes investments such as updating the interventional radiology suite and planning to reconfigure existing rooms and install new equipment.
Fraser Health also said it added two operating rooms at Abbotsford Regional Hospital in the last two years.
Lewis said the focus, at the moment, seems to be on Surrey and its hospital.
In mid-September, emergency room doctors at Surrey Memorial Hospital penned a scathing letter to the head of Fraser Health warning that “deteriorating conditions” are “unequivocally leading to substandard care.”
The doctors said they’ve made “repeated and urgent attempts” to alert Fraser Health and provincial health leadership of worsening conditions in the emergency department, but have received “little response.”
Fraser Health confirmed no physicians have been redeployed from Abbotsford Regional Hospital to support Surrey Memorial Hospital.
Lewis said he does not know why Abbotsford Regional Hospital seems to have been left behind.
“But at the moment, the service is failing the 600,000 people that are supposed to be providing universal health care and at the moment, we just simply are not getting universal health care,” he added.
“Resources are diverted to major sites in Surrey and Royal Columbian. Surrey has now got a fully functioning vascular IR (interventional radiology) unit. They don’t have vascular service.
“They’re scheduled to get to more IR units and they don’t have a vascular service. We don’t have an interventional OR suite where we can do some of the more complex vascular operations.”
Lewis said he is frustrated and he wants elected officials to pay attention to the alarm he is ringing.
NDP leader David Eby said on Thursday that Abbotsford’s situation is not unique.
“In terms of the emergency room situation, it’s not just in Abbotsford and it’s certainly not just in British Columbia,” Eby said.
“This is a major challenge across Canada. We have a shortage of the skilled health-care workers that we need in Canada.”