Why patients are sidestepping Lower Mainland hospitals, seeking care in Hope

There’s a bizarre twist in the ongoing crumbling health-care saga in B.C.

1130 NewsRadio has learned some Lower Mainlanders have been driving out to Hope seeking health care, instead of going to hospitals in their own communities.

“We have heard from some of our members that they are seeing people from other parts of the Fraser Valley come to Hope for care,” explains Caelie Frampton, coordinator of policy and planning for the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU).

She outlines the major related concerns.

“That means they’re likely actually delaying getting care because they have to travel to go do that. And we’ve heard, sometimes, what will actually happen is people will be even sent back to the hospital in Abbotsford or Chilliwack because the Hope hospital is smaller, and they have limited resources.”

It’s also putting the limited number of staff members at the hospital in Hope in the position of having to care for patients they wouldn’t necessarily have met.

“Overall, the health-care system is still dealing with a lot of staffing shortages across the board. And we’re not the only place dealing with this. It’s happening across Canada and globally. Really, what we would say is we need to see government invest in more health-care staffing overall to make sure all the health-care facilities across the Fraser Valley have adequate staffing to be able to make sure people feel like going to their local hospital is going to mean that they get the care when they need it.”

Frampton adds that hearing people are going to Hope is concerning, and admits she isn’t shocked at how desperate members of the public have become.

“As a patient, that’s incredibly frustrating. They’re taking those risks in terms of waiting that long to get care. I would say to people try to get care locally. But as someone who works there, it would be frustrating to have folks who are not local coming for care.”

The key question in all of this is ‘Why?’ Is there a lack of trust at bigger hospitals? Do people think they’ll get better access to care at a smaller facility?

Dr. Craig Murray, the co-regional medical director for emergency medicine for the Fraser Health Authority (FHA), oversees care at a dozen hospitals, including the one in Hope.

He confirms that some people from Surrey are going to Hope for help weekly.

“We would encourage every patient to choose the hospital that is closest to home or in their community, unless they’re well known at a different hospital — say, they had a surgery there recently or there’s a follow-up for a particular reason — but otherwise, absolutely, patients should be going to their community hospital.”

1130 NewsRadio asked Murray if people may be commuting because there is an image problem with facilities plagued by problems like Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH) or Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH).

He ventures it’s likely a combination of a lack of access to primary care physicians and long ER wait times, forcing people to go elsewhere.

“Emergency departments are stop-gaps for patients to get care, unfortunately. And because of that, we are seeing increased wait times, I’d say, across Canada for being seen in an emergency department. So, patients are looking for alternatives wherever they can, wherever they perceive to be a shorter wait. We just need to inform the public that is not the case and it’s probably not the best choice.”

He notes the issue is complicated by people with family doctors who are unable to get an immediate appointment and quick bookings at urgent care facilities or walk-in clinics.

“We see a lot of patients who come into the emergency department and apologize, having said they tried to reach out to their primary care provider or urgent care and were unable to find service that day, so they came to the emergency department,” explained Murray, adding wait times can reach up to eight hours any day of the week.

“Patients are looking for alternatives wherever they can, wherever they perceive to be a shorter wait.”

Murray warns that anyone considering stepping outside of their city or region may not get the help they want or think they need.

“Patients are always seen based on their need in an emergency department, and the sickest patients get seen first. And helping people understand that if they go to a hospital outside of the community, they might get admitted to that hospital, it might be harder for their family to see them, or it might require follow-up care with a specialist, and that’s quite a long drive for follow-up care.”

Murray says the staff in Hope having to see a couple of extra patients every week is not a huge problem, given the ongoing cracks in the health-care system. But he says even one person doing that is still one too many.

Both Frampton and Murray suggest government intervention, an injection of money, and recruiting and retaining staff are solutions to help bolster the health-care system and provide people with hope.