Surrey Memorial Hospital doctors say meeting with minister was a start but 'not enough' without funding

Teams of doctors who've broken protocol to speak out about what they describe as dangerous conditions within their departments at Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH) held a meeting with B.C.'s health minister on Wednesday as a step toward finding solutions.

Physicians said Health Minister Adrian Dix acknowledged the hospital's birthing unit is "bursting at the seams" and assured the team they would work together to find a solution but did not commit to more funding for an expanded maternity centre.

"I have guarded optimism, let's just say that," said Dr. Claudine Storness-Bliss, an obstetrician and gynecologist at SMH who went public this week about a "scary" resourcing crisis in her unit.

"I am glad that we had an open line of communication, that we can continue to raise the issue ... The assurance that we're being listened to is important, but it's not enough."

The physicians' meeting with Dix came after more than 100 doctors from emergency rooms and an OBGYN department in the Lower Mainland released blistering letters saying understaffing, underfunding and a lack of public transparency from Fraser Health had pushed strained hospitals past the breaking point.

The OBGYN letter said the crisis led to the death of a newborn in 2021, while another from an association representing hundreds of doctors said health-care leaders shouldn't allow any more new patients into SMH's ER unless critical staff vacancies can be filled.

Fraser Health has not made staff available for an interview since Sunday, despite recent requests from CBC.

WATCH | Birthing unit in crisis mode, obstetrician says:

Storness-Bliss said the authority's CEO, Dr. Victoria Lee, was not at the meeting Wednesday.

Speaking at a separate news conference later in the day, Dix said the meeting proves the province is committed to working with physicians to improve the pressure on acute care.

"What I think doctors said to me, specifically, is they want to be involved, and I want them to be involved because at a detailed level, at a patient level, they have the insights required to make the right decisions," he said, adding that he has "full confidence" in Lee after having his own meeting with her on Wednesday.

"Absolutely, people in Surrey have a right to be completely concerned. Their hospital is doing more than ever before," he continued.

"And I want to say this: the doctors and nurses and health sciences professionals and health-care workers at Surrey Memorial Hospital provide, in terms of efficiency and work, some of the most outstanding work done in public health care in the world.

"So when they raise these issues, I'm there to respond."

Dix said the province has been working to improve access to primary care to lessen the pressure on hospitals, noting B.C.'s health-care system has been in a crisis for more than three years as a result of COVID-19.

The minister said hospital demand has been high in the Fraser Health region since January when daily patient numbers reached record heights during flu season.

Dr. Courtney Young, a cardiologist at Surrey Memorial, said that it would be naive to say the recent open letters did not influence Dix's decision to meet with doctors.

"Regardless of that, it's a positive thing, right?" she told Belle Puri, guest host of CBC's On The Coast. "He's our health minister. He probably has his calendar scheduled for months and months.

"To be able to make an entire morning free to discuss, with some of the leaders, [the] problems in the hospital — I think that's only a positive thing."

Young says she put forward a request for a cardiac cath lab — a diagnostics laboratory used to visualize the heart's arteries — at Surrey Memorial, and Dix seemed receptive. A stakeholder group has been put together in order to advance the issue, according to the cardiologist.

Offer 'on the table' to hire hospitalists, Dix says

In their own letters this month, doctors running Surrey's emergency room explained why the lack of house doctors has pushed their units past the breaking point.

ER doctors are only meant to diagnose and stabilize patients so they can be admitted to the appropriate ward for comprehensive treatment.

Without enough hospitalists admitting patients to the next ward, patients end up stranded in the ER for as long as three days.

WATCH | Senior physician talks about conditions at Surrey Memorial:

It's left to emergency physicians to care for those lingering patients, as new ones keep coming in the door. Doctors at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster and Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody described a similar situation.

Hospitalist hires have been held up by contract negotiations. Dix on Wednesday acknowledged those discussions have taken "too long" despite regular meetings but said the province has "an offer on the table."

The letter from the OBGYN team at SMH said resourcing problems have led to "countless near misses" with patient safety in addition to the newborn's death.

Those physicians also said B.C. Women's Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver receive more department funding, despite seeing fewer OBGYN patients than SMH.