BC Medical Association: ED (Emergency Department) overcrowding requires system-wide solutions

Emergency room problems continue to be in the news again … and in particular, this time around, with Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.

That led me to consider writing my blog comments on the issue.  I don’t need to however … plenty is already being written about it … and has been for years now. 

All I had to do was conduct a Google search for “overcrowded bc hospitals” and in 0.34 seconds six hundred and twenty eight thousand (628,000) items came up … here are just a few

Today’s letters:  Hospital overcrowding nothing new

The situation at the Royal Columbian is not unique to that hospital; most urban hospitals in Canada are facing the same problems. What is unique is that the New Westminster Fire Marshall’s office is seemingly the only government agency that is able to rapidly do what hospital and regional health authority officials seem incapable of doing; acknowledging a threat to the public’s health and rapidly solving it …

Doctors take a stand at overcrowded Royal Columbian

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 Horton’s once …

Beds spill into halls, lobby of overcrowded B.C. hospital

Overcrowding at one Metro Vancouver hospital has pushed patients and their belongings into busy hallways and even the emergency room lobby, where privacy screens have been set up since Tuesday afternoon.   The situation at Royal Columbian Hospital is reminiscent of last March, when the facility's Tim Horton's coffee shop was turned into a makeshift ward to handle patient overflow …

Vernon Jubilee Hospital overcrowded: B.C. Nurses Union

… chronic overcrowding is putting immense pressure on front line workers and making life very unpleasant for patients … at one point last week, 192 patients were admitted into the hospital, which only has enough room for 148 …

Overfilled B.C. Hospital Storing Patients In Lobby

… photos taken in the lobby Tuesday evening show dozens of blue cloth screens set up in the lobby area to try to provide privacy during the surge of patients.  The overcrowding situation also ties up ambulance crews, who have to remain with patients and monitor them instead of heading back out to be available for other emergency calls …

Families slam aging, overcrowded psych ward

…  families with loved ones who are mentally ill are speaking out about what they call a decrepit, overcrowded, ineffective psychiatric facility at Vancouver General Hospital.   "It's a horrible place," said Shraga Dachner, whose stepdaughter is a former patient. "I would not put my dog in there."

"It's a place you would have difficulty healing in," said Ellen Wiebe, a medical doctor whose stepson was also a patient at VGH. "When he was in there … he got worse."

B.C. hospital that used Tim Horton’s as ER last year forced to treat patients in lobby

… with patients on stretchers already lining its hallways and waiting rooms, the hospital set up five more stretchers in its lobby, separating each with privacy screens. Patients brought in by ambulance spent hours being treated by paramedics in the lobby while waiting to be admitted.  Overcrowding has become a chronic problem at the 150-year-old hospital, which is one of just two trauma centres in the province and serves a third of B.C.’s growing population …

Call for more beds getting louder

“Why is it being ignored? Chances are you or a loved one are going to need to go in there. It’s depressing,” he said.  VJH receives funding for 148 acute-care beds but on average, there are 165 patients daily. A shortage of beds has also led to surgeries being cancelled …

And a July 2011 policy statement from the British Columbia Medical Association, entitled “Emergency Department Overcrowding” had the following analysis:

“… ED (Emergency Department) overcrowding is systemic of demand exceeding capacity in hospitals and requires system-wide solutions.  This can be addressed immediately, with existing resources, through mechanisms to improve patient flow … the supply of functional acute care beds must be increased to a level where ED patients admitted to the hospital have access to one in a timely manner … ED overcrowding issues must be dealt with urgently through collaborative action between the Ministry of Health Services, health authorities, hospital administrators, and front-line emergency physicians, and staff in order to effect the necessary change needed for safe access to emergency care and improved patient flow ...”

How much longer are we going to allow this to happen??

While writing this, I received a phone call from a member of the BC Conservative Party, in the Kamloops area, that has been bumped time and time again on surgery they need --- not minor surgery, but major surgery needed to have a healthy and productive life.

I had the same thing happen last year, with another call from a member … and these two cases I am personally aware of only scratch the surface.

The problems in health care continue year after year, with band-aid solutions being applied.  That cannot be allowed to continue … it must not be allowed to continue.  Real solutions need to be found, but it appears the current BC Liberal government seems unable to do the work needed to find them.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops … with the thoughts of one conservative.