Delta’s mayor and council are urging the province and Fraser Health to open a much-needed urgent and primary care centre in the city.
At its regular meeting on Monday (March 3), council unanimously adopted a motion moved by Mayor George Harvie directing staff to prepare a letter requesting an urgent public council meeting with Health Minister Josie Osborne and Fraser Health’s board chair, Jim Sinclair, and interim president and CEO, Lynn Stevenson, to discuss recent closures of Delta Hospital’s emergency department, and the “critical need” for establishing urgent and primary care centres in the city.
Copies of the letter will also be sent to Premier David Eby, Delta MP Carla Qualtrough, Delta North MLA Ravi Kahlon, Delta South MLA Ian Paton, and Chief Laura Cassidy of the Tsawwassen First Nation.
Harvie’s motion was spurred by what Fraser Health termed “service interruptions” on Saturday, Feb. 22 and Sunday, Feb. 23 that saw patients diverted to other hospitals between 9:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. because there were no emergency room doctors on shift.
With ER wait times already an issue, coupled with an insufficient number of family doctors and few walk-in clinics (none in South Delta), Harvie argued having an urgent and primary care centre in Delta would alleviate pressure on the hospital’s emergency department and improve patient outcomes by providing immediate treatment for non-emergency conditions and helping to managing chronic health issues.
“A significant number of Delta residents do not have a family doctor or access to urgent and primary care centres, sending more people to Delta Hospital for minor emergencies and health concerns,” Harvie said in a press release Tuesday afternoon.
“As our community continues to grow, access to health care will become even more challenging, highlighting the critical need for additional health-care infrastructure across our city. Urgent and primary care centres would provide greater choice in care for residents, while also diverting traffic away from our busy hospital, and Delta council is ready to work with Fraser Health to deliver these much-needed facilities in our community.”
Fraser Health currently operates 10 urgent and primary care centres, including two in Surrey, with an eleventh set to come online in White Rock this December.
Harvie’s motion followed a presentation by Cathy Wiebe, executive director for Delta and Peace Arch hospitals and community services for South Delta and White Rock/South Surrey, Dr. Sally Barrio, Fraser Health co-regional department head for emergency medicine, and Dr. Dan Rubin, site medical director at Delta Hospital, meant to address council’s concerns regarding the recent ER service interruptions.
Wiebe spoke to how service interruptions are handled and why the public was given such short notice of the ones at Delta Hospital.
She said hospital administration and Fraser Health work very hard to fill any gaps in services, “and that does not stop at the local level; it goes regionally, it goes provincially.”
“As we’re aware, physician schedules are very dynamic, and they do change for a variety of reasons, in real time,” Wiebe said, stressing that shifts are successfully filled to prevent service interruptions “almost all the time.”
“We only use that service interruption as a last resort when there is no possibility of finding a physician for that shift.”
Wiebe said advance planning for service interruptions involves key partners including medical staff, BC Emergency Health Services and staff at nearby hospitals — in the case of Delta, that would be Richmond and Peace Arch — to ensure patients are moved safely around the health authority.
Fraser Health reaches out to the municipality, police and fire departments, and hospital foundation to let them know a service interruption is coming, while alerts are also sent out via social media and through local media, though the health authority usually waits “until the very last minute,” typically several hours before, to issue those notices.
“We understand the significant impact that is to our community,” Wiebe said. “The reason we wait is we are continually trying to fill that shift, and it is vital that we give our community a clear message when that event occurs.”
“Ninety-nine per cent of the time we are able to fill those shifts. So the reason we don’t [issue a notice sooner] is because of that great record in regards to filling those shifts, and not alarming the community prior to any event.”
Wiebe also stressed that the emergency department at Delta Hospital was never closed, as qualified nurses continued to see patients, providing basic first aid, helping them determine whether they need to seek treatment elsewhere and aiding them in finding transportation to another site.
Barrio, who is also an emergency room physician at Surrey Memorial Hospital, described Fraser Health’s efforts to bolster doctor recruitment in the region, including at Delta Hospital.
“We do strive to maintain continuous emergency department access for all communities in Fraser Health, and the recent service interruptions at Delta Hospital is truly the last thing that we ever wanted to happen. We do recognize the impact that this has had on the community, and we really want to assure you that significant efforts have been made, and continue to be made, to sustain emergency medicine care despite the challenges we are facing locally, regionally, provincially and nationally.”
Barrio said that, like many other industries, health authorities are dealing with a “finite number” of qualified staff, including doctors, nurses and technicians, calling it “a multi-factorial issue.”
“Many physicians are retiring. They are facing their own medical concerns and are also trying to balance family obligations. So despite our ongoing recruitment efforts, unexpected challenges can arise suddenly.”
Barrio said ER scheduling is a dynamic and ongoing process that is worked on daily, and managers stay in contact with counterparts at other facilities in order to maintain continuity of care and stability.
Barrio also said Fraser Health employs a talent acquisition team to try to recruit physicians locally, nationally and internationally, while a new medical school opening at SFU will help to address doctor shortages in the long term.
Wiebe said it is important as Delta continues to grow and change that all parties work collaboratively to meet evolving health needs now and in the future.
“This includes exploring ways to position Delta as a community of choice for prospective physicians and health-care providers.”
In his comments following the delegation's presentation Monday night, Harvie stressed that council’s concerns in no way reflect the work of staff at the hospital, saying their issue is with Fraser Health and the administration.
He cited data showing visits to Delta Hospital’s ER jumped to 43,470 in 2023, up from roughly 26,000 two years earlier.
“The reason that the numbers are going up so much is there’s no other options if you live in Delta, none whatsoever,” Harvie said.
The mayor said an urgent and primary care centre in the city would help alleviate wait times at the hospital, and questioned why Delta has so far not been considered for one.
“I’m very concerned as the mayor and an individual here in Delta that we do not have the same kind of health-care facilities that the rest of the Fraser Health region has.”
Wiebe said determination of where urgent care and urgent primary care centres are placed is made by the Ministry of Health, based on proposals put together by health authorities and where demand is highest.
To date, Wiebe said, an application to have an urgent care or urgent primary care centre in Delta has not been made, but conversations are ongoing between the health authority, Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation and city staff to “get that pushed up fairly quickly."
