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