VANCOUVER, BC - Ambulance paramedics say they're spending too much time tied up at hospital emergency departments in the Fraser Health Region. Overcrowded emergency rooms mean ambulances are sometimes spending all day and night caring for patients they can't unload. Paramedics say they've witnessed seizures and heart attacks in the holding area, because the emergency departments are so clogged. One paramedic says earlier this week at he pleaded with staff at Royal Columbian Hospital for 90 minutes to help a patient. He says there were signs the 38-year-old man he was transporting was about to have a seizure. Paramedic union representative Stu Myers says hospital staff finally came running when the man had the seizure. "I believe an hour and a half is too long for anybody to wait," he says. "It's also an hour and a half that an ambulance crew is tied up in the hospital, assuming the duties of a registered nurse." The experience left the paramedic frustrated. Myers says that because of the delays, there are times when there are no ambulances available to respond to calls in the Fraser Health Region. Managers at the B.C. Ambulance Service are also concerned. Regional director Mike Sanderson agrees that emergency room delays are taking up too much ambulance time. "Within the Fraser Health Authority, for the month of December and the month of January, it's the equivalent of almost three amubulances per day, tied up at the various hospital sites – for the whole day."
KAMLOOPS, BC - The Interior Health Authority (IHA) is finishing up its internal review of Royal Inland Hospital, and the biggest concern - freeing up ambulances and paramedics - is already being addressed. According to RIH acute care director Chris Histead, ambulances are heading back onto the roads faster than they have in months.
"One of the key issues for us when we started this review was to focus on B.C. Ambulance Service, and on getting them back onto the street after coming into RIH," he said. As recently as last month, paramedics were forced to cool their heels for hours at the hospital, waiting with their patients until a bed became available in the emergency room.
To address those long waits, IHA implemented a pre-emergency room program. When a patient arrives at the hospital via ambulance, they are loaded into a pre-emergency waiting area where a nurse monitors them until a bed becomes available in the ER. This new system, said Histead, allows the paramedics to get back into their vehicles and onto the streets.
You think its bad in Kamloops, try the GVRD. Surrey memorial and RCH are totally out of control. Then again I rode in Toronto last year and its just as bad if not worse there.
Hospitals falling short of target to cut ER wait times
SURREY, BC - Paramedics say emergency room congestion in this region is on the rise and the delays they face are worst at Surrey Memorial, Burnaby General and Royal Columbian hospitals.
“For the month of April we spent about 300 hours at the emergency at Surrey Memorial,” said B.J. Chute, spokesman for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. Paramedics must stay for extended periods at the side of critically ill patients who have arrived at emergency but haven’t yet been treated or admitted to hospital.
“There’s no place for us to take our patients to get the next level of care,” he said. Chute said it’s also bad at Burnaby General and Royal Columbian hospitals, where crews have logged more than 150 hours waiting this month.
“Those were the top three in the entire region,” he said, adding the numbers are up from February and March was at close to the highest level he’s seen.
VANCOUVER, BC - The provincial government has given a $7 million booster shot to 14 of B.C.'s busiest hospitals. The funding comes amidst grim tales of horror in emergency rooms across the province, as told by doctors, patients and the families of people in care.
An "action meeting" was called on the weekend to bring together 70 of the province's emergency health care professionals to come up with ways to relieve B.C.'s crowded hospital wards. Health Minister George Abbott said the funding -- and changes -- will be set immediately.
"We expect that emergency departments will be identifying a lead doctor, a lead nurse as well as a paramedic representative to talk about a lot of these issues about how we can better manage in the short-term the pressures that occasionally exhibit at emergency rooms," he said.
VANCOUVER, BC - A $7-million cash infusion to be split between 15 hospitals won’t go far to relieve emergency room congestion and amounts to little more than political damage control, critics say. The money, announced Saturday by health minister George Abbott, works out to about $470,000 each for the hospitals, which include Burnaby General, Lions Gate Hospital, MSA – Abbotsford, Richmond, Royal Columbian and Surrey Memorial.
“It’s a backhanded recognition that there is in fact a crisis across emergency rooms at B.C. hospitals,” said NDP health critic David Cubberley, who noted the money came after intense pressure from ER doctors. “Last week the minister spent the week denying that there was a crisis – that congestion was having an impact on patients’ health – and referring to doctors as alarmist,” he said. “Suddenly over the weekend he had a conversion of some sort.”
What Surey needs in another hospital. That city is growing by the second and the closest trauma ER is RCH?? (correct me if i'm wrong BCAS guys) Surrey Memorial is bursting at the seems and the only way to help that is another hospital, one that can accept trauma patients.........BC...........
I work in OR at Foothills Medical Center here in Calgary and it's the major trauma center for Southern Alberta and Southeastern BC. Quite often you'll see stretchers lined all the way up hallway to the OR from the ER. One thing they've done here is hire paramedics to work in the hallways and watch over and care for the patients while they wait to be admitted. This then frees up the paramedics who bring the patients to leave and get back on the streets.
Unfortunately the two paramedics they have on shift to work the halls can't watch over everyone so some of the others have to stay. They are looking at hiring quite a few more positions soon though.
KELOWNA, BC - The largest health-care facility in the B.C. Interior – Kelowna General Hospital – declared a "code purple" alert on Wednesday, as it tried to deal with another patient overcrowding crisis. The alerts are issued when the hospital becomes so overloaded that existing patients must be discharged on an emergency basis to clear beds for incoming patients. The Kelowna hospital had the same problem about two months ago, a problem that led Health Minister George Abbott to promise another 20 long-term care beds and an expansion of the emergency room.
Crowded ERs tie up BC ambulance crews
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