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Doctors take a stand at overcrowded Royal Columbian
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By: ctvbc.ca
Date: Tuesday Feb. 7, 2012 7:02 PM PT
Doctors at the chronically overcrowded Royal Columbian Hospital have announced that starting next week, they will no longer be treating non-emergency patients in the emergency department.
On Tuesday morning, 40 of the 42 emergency beds were occupied by non-emergency patients because regular care rooms were full. The continual lack of beds means doctors have had to treat emergency patients in hallways, other hospital spaces, and even a Tim Hortons once.
"We have patients who deserve to be in the hospital on a ward and because of a lack of beds, they're kept in the emergency department," said emergency room doctor Dr. Adam Lund. "As a result, there isn't a place for newly arriving emergency patients to go."
That will change soon, as RCH doctors prepare to take a stand next Wednesday.
"We are going to insist that the beds be swapped so we can assess newly arriving emergency patients in the emergency beds rather than continuing to enable the system to push the emergency patients into the unsafe spaces," Lund said.
Lund said he hopes the patients who are currently in emergency will be taken upstairs to the wards. Yet those wards are also full, which means those patients currently staying in them will be moved to the hallway.
Fraser Health Authority said creating bed space at Royal Columbian Hospital has been challenging, given a dramatic increase in demand in the emergency department.
"At some of our sites—Royal Columbian is one of them—we have almost double-digit increases over the last year in terms of our demand, so it's really difficult to continue to try and manage that demand," said Fraser Health vice president of clinic operations Arden Krystal.
More than 400 beds have been added to the region by the health authority over the last 10 years. An additional 151 beds are to be ready when the Surrey Memorial Critical Care Tower is complete. The tower is scheduled to open in 2014.
Health Minister Mike de Jong said a plan to add 300 more beds at Royal Columbian is currently in the works, though it will be several years before redevelopment is completed.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
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Comments are now closed for this story
Sacha |
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I think that Canada now needs to start looking at having intermediary ER's. Have your clinics and doctor's offices, but for times when you may need help which needs immediate attention but is not really an emergency room problem, have an intermediary ER to take the pressure off of the clinics and also the ER rooms. |
Charlie |
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Most doctor's offices, if not all, operate between nine and five, Mondays through Fridays. Some operate on Saturdays. Everybody, especially those with small children, know that they usually get sick outside normal "office hours" and as a result, although most of the times the cause is not serious, people are practically forced to go to emergencies. To play it safe, any parent will not wait until the next morning to visit the family doctor. |
Concerned physician |
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The first problem with the health care system we currently have in Canada is we "treat" and don't "prevent." Our priority should not be to add more beds, it should be to keep people out of beds to begin with. We need to invest heavily into primary care and overhaul how we deliver health care. Patient's should be seen by GP's, NP's, PA's long before they ever "need" to go to the ER. We deliver primary care in our hospitals which is an absolute waste of resources. Hospitals are meant to deliver ACUTE care and majority of investigations that are done there can be done as an outpatient. The second problem with the health care system is our hospitals are used to house long term care patients. Again, instead of increasing the number of beds at a hospital, we need to increase the number of beds in the community (assisted living and nursing homes). Between these 2 issues, we could clear up more than 50% of beds in hospitals/ER's. Our health care system is not "universal" or "best in the world" not by a long shot. We are walking on egg shells here and our system will crash in the near future: what's the plan then? open up 1000 new hospitals to house everyone? FYI... I'm a family physician. |
Bill |
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Way too many people in the ER need their boo boo kissed and sent home. Same as Childrens hospital. My baby threw up his formula ???Wake up people you are killing our health care system. Ask yourself 1 question before going to the ER. Is this an emergncy? |
Rob |
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There should be far more walk-in clinics open on the weekends and in the evenings. There is also far too many people going to the hospital emergency that should not be there. The government should also be dramatically expanding the homecare program which is proven to be much less expensive and patients tend to get better quicker at home than in the hospital too. |
David in Langley |
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The doctor got it right. To add to it, we also need "Care" homes to start providing care. How often are patients under the care of a registered nurse in a facility being sent to ER for "rehydration" or IV therapy? Keep these people in their homes, and have the RN treat the patient. If the issue is about liability, then upgrade the insurance. If they can pull it off in the Litigious States of America, they can certainly do it here. |
simone |
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If it's a cold or sniffle aka a virus. don't go to the hospital. It is NOT,NOT an emergency fools it's a cold. Check the ethnic background of some of those in emergency with a cold and you will see where the medical money is being wasted. Sad but true.Emergencies are broken bones, strokes etc. Those going to hospitals for viruses should be turned away.Go to your Dr.and he/she will send you home"take 2 aspirins and go to bed". It's not rocket science it's common sense. |
HD |
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The message is clear; the total lack of interest in the area of healthcare on the part of the Liberal government over the last 12 years is now coming home to roost. The Olympics, the Convention Center, the un-necessary BC place roof (that didn't need it) the Whistler Highway etc, all were pet projects of this government and as a result, we now have this crisis in our health care system. Think this is no big deal, and that it doesn't affect you, guess again: From a recent government document: Pre-hospital death rates from trauma are: 12% in the Lower mainland, 45% for parts of the island, 59% in the interior, 75% in BC's north and a staggering 82% in BC's northwest. This costs us all an est. $2.8 BILLION per year - and no one in this Liberal government seems to care!!! Remember that when you vote next year. |
Sheila |
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This all goes back to long-term care patients, with nowhere else to go, taking up precious hospital beds. Until the government addresses the lack of beds for these patients, they will continue to fill hospital beds that could be used to move patients out of Emergency. And as for the doctors only treating emergency cases, I don't really blame them... the ER should not be used as a walk-in clinic, but what other choice do patients have? There are not enough walk-in clinics, so too many people who either don't have a doctor, or can't get in to see their doctor, end up in the ER. |
RCH_Patient |
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Dr.'s are overpaid anyways...c'mon really $100,000 a year to hand out prescriptions and nurses just sitting on FB half of the time....geez folks no wonder people are dying in BC ...cause nobody cares anymore... get with the program...our medical is turning into the U.S system...might as well embrace it...cause nothing will change anytime soon....might as well import more DR.'s from overseas...if our own Canadian doctors dont want to do anything. |
Dalou |
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I'm not surprised it's come to this, it's probably overdue. One thing BC desperately needs is more assisted/complicated (long term) care facilities because every time I've been to a hospital (usually to accompany someone else) there are a LOT of elderly people in beds who really don't belong there but are awaiting more appropriate facilities. And there are plenty of open spaces around the province but most of them are expensive, there are wait lists for the subsidized units. Well the gov't is paying for them to lay in a hospital bed, the money would be better spent paying the subsidy for a more appropriate facility for them. Free up those beds for people who actually need them. We also need more senior facilities that charge a percentage of income as opposed to a flat rate, like a co-op model. They work very well, we just need more of them. Another thing that could stand to change is getting otherwise healthy people who need physical rehabilitation out of hospitals and into GF Strong type facilities, they don't belong in hospitals. They usually get rehab (physio) only once a day 5 days a week, the rest of the time they're bored senseless, getting depressed, and taking up a bed intended for the acutely ill. Start putting people where they BELONG and it will free up facilities for those who need them. |
Will |
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Solution, one that's been suggested before but hasn't been implemented because of the shrieking shock expressed by the leftist who can't abide by any suggestion that touches their sacred cows: user fee for non-emergency patient visits to the ER. Tightwads will stay away when it's not a legitimate emergency, freeing up resources for those who really need them. |
Jim-Surrey |
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Well as the immigrants arrive and show up at emerge all the time what do you expect?They should have a clean bill of health before they are allowed in.Sniffles does not require emergency service!!!! |
Don Knight |
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If it was putting another roof on a sports building or building a convention centre or MLA's voting themselves a wage increase it would be done right now. But adding more bed's to a over crowded health care system means nothing. Yes some people need to be educated. Calling the BC nurse line (811) in most cases means calling 911 as they will not give advise over the phone. Another useless system. More people need to go and see their family Doctor before making the trip to the ER unless it is an absolute emergency. The other thing is they need to realize there is no fountain of youth at the hospital. If you are 94 years old and you ache all over..... You are old. |
conductor274 |
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This overcrowding in hospitals is not happening by accident. There is a big push by private corporations to take over our universal medicare system but the resistance in Canada to the private for profit system is huge. So the only way to get Canadians to accept private for profit services is to break the current system which will make it so unappealing to the public that they will grudgingly accept the private for profit system. Think about it for a minute. About 10 years ago all governments were swearing there would be no private for profit clinics allowed under our medicare system. Now under Harper's conservative government they are turning a blind eye to this practice.http://www.canadians.org/media/council/2008/7-May-08.html |
patient |
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And who will pay for all these new facilities, concerned physician and sacha? The taxpayers are strained to the limit now. Perhaps doctors would volunteer a roll back on their billings to provide more nursing home beds. Perhaps nurses, HEU members, and hospital administrators could take a roll back to help free up the money for new beds at alternate facilities. But, no, not one of these over priced groups will take a roll back, in fact, they always want more. I am in an industry that deals with these groups and sees the cash flow. Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. |
grrr. |
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First of all, FHA has added 400 beds? BIG DEAL. How many have they taken away? Even if they haven't taken those beds away in the same time period that they have added beds, let's look at the trend for at least the past 10 years.As for the patients, I absolutely CANNOT understand how patients still come to the ER with "I'm sick" (flu like symptoms) "When did this start?" "3 days ago"and yes, I know this is happening first hand.Part of the problem is we need more 24 hour clinic access. But why is the ER the automatic place people go to see a doctor for routine issues? |
Tabby |
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The problem with Fraser Health is that they are building all of the new beds in Surrey. There are no new beds for Royal Columbian and it is overcrowded every day.It is bad for the patient and bad for the people who work there. Something bad is going to have to happen to get the administration to fix the problem. |
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