Delta, Tsawwassen First Nation and Surrey are all calling on the province to open two urgent and primary care centres in or near Delta.
In a letter to Health Minister Josie Osborne dated May 6, Delta Mayor George Harvie, Tsawwassen First Nation Chief Laura Cassidy, and Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke urge the ministry to prioritize establishing one urgent and primary care centre (UPCC) in or close to North Delta and one in South Delta or on Tsawwassen First Nation lands.
Their request comes amid ongoing and escalating concerns around access to health care across the region — highlighted locally by overnight service disruptions at Delta Hospital’s emergency department in late February — and overall strain on the local health-care system, according to a City of Delta press release.
“People should be able to have confidence that quality, timely health care will be available to them when they need it,” Harvie said in the release.
“The addition of two UPCCs … would be invaluable, reducing the pressure on Delta Hospital and Surrey Memorial, and ensuring better access to non-emergent health care. Our growing region needs robust health-care services more than ever and Delta council will continue to advocate for these much-needed facilities.”
The jointly-signed letter notes that many Delta and TFN residents do not have a family doctor and are left without viable alternatives as “walk-in clinic access is limited or unavailable.”
There are very few walk-in clinics in Delta, and finding accurate listings of them online is not as easy as it sounds. The “find a walk-in clinic near you” service on HealthLink BC, the province’s health information website, only lists one such facility in Delta: Mercy Medical Clinic inside the Walmart on Scott Road.
Searches on the site for “Ladner,” “Tsawwassen” and “Tsawwassen First Nation” yield no results.
Yet on its website, the Delta Division of Family Practice, which services those three communities, lists one walk-in clinic for the area: Lark Medical, inside the Walmart at Tsawwassen Commons (the outdoor mall behind Tsawwassen Mills).
The Surrey-North Delta Division of Family Practice website doesn’t list walk-in clinics, but does redirect visitors to the Health Connect Registry on HealthLink BC, which links to the previously-mentioned “find a walk-in clinic near you” service.
A Google search for “walk-in clinic” does return several results in Delta, however nearly all of those are not actually walk-in clinics; either they used to be but no longer are, or they never were, and several do not have websites that clearly state they take patients without appointments.
As best as we can tell from our online searching here at the Reporter, beyond the Walmart-based clinics, there are no walk-ins in South Delta or TFN, just one in North Delta’s Sunstone neighbourhood, and a couple on the Surrey side of 120 Street.
As a result of the inadequate number of family physicians and this dearth of walk-in clinics in Delta, “the Delta Hospital Emergency Department is increasingly relied upon for non-life-threatening concerns, placing unsustainable strain on the facility and exacerbating wait times,” Harvie, Cassidy and Locke’s letter states.
“The City of Surrey, neighbouring the City of Delta, is already managing significant population growth and health-care demand and is experiencing the downstream effects of this care gap. Without sufficient primary care services for Delta and TFN, patients often turn to facilities in Surrey, amplifying pressures on existing urgent care and emergency services.”
The letter goes on to say that establishing UPCCs in/near Delta will improve health-care access and equity for Delta, TFN and surrounding communities, reduce the burden on local hospitals’ emergency departments, and address urgent care needs for non-emergent issues.
“We stand united in this appeal and are ready to work in full partnership with the province and Fraser Health to address these health-care service gaps. Our residents deserve timely, equitable and community-based care, and we believe the establishment of two new UPCC’s serving our communities will be [a] crucial step toward that goal.”
The letter comes just over two months after council voted unanimously to have staff prepare a letter requesting an urgent public council meeting with the health minister, Fraser Health’s then-board chair, Jim Sinclair, and Fraser Health's 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.
The move was spurred by what Fraser Health termed overnight “service interruptions” Feb. 22-23 and again Feb. 23-24 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.
On March 20, Stevenson sent her own letter declining council's request for a meeting, saying Fraser Health is "working hard" with the Ministry of Health and Division of Family Practice to "improve and enhance" access to primary care in all communities, including Delta.
Stevenson said it would be "most effective" if mayor and council connected with Delta and Peace Arch hospitals and community services for South Delta and White Rock/South Surrey, and Dr. Dan Rubin, site medical director for Delta Hospital, to discuss the ER service disruptions and need for UPCCs in the city.
"[Wiebe and Rubin] have our full confidence and are committed to continuing to keep you informed of any changes and advancements to health services in the community," Stevenson wrote. "They will engage with their colleagues responsible for emergency department staffing and urgent and primary care centre development, and will ensure you are involved in the discussions as appropriate."
Wiebe, Rubin and Dr. Sally Barrio, Fraser Health's co-regional department head for emergency medicine, spoke at the March 3 meeting where council voted to send its letter to the health minister and Fraser Health's senior leadership.
Wiebe told council that 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.
At the time, Wiebe said an application to have an urgent care or urgent primary care centre in Delta had not been made, but that conversations were ongoing between the health authority, Delta Hospital and Community Health Foundation and city staff to “get that pushed up fairly quickly."
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.
