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Delta Hospital emergency room closure sparks public outcry, government response

Daniel Chai
Daniel Chai
|
Feb 24 2025, 11:55 pm
Delta Hospital emergency room closure sparks public outcry, government response
Delta Hospital

A lack of doctors over the weekend forced an emergency room in Metro Vancouver to temporarily close for two consecutive nights, and members of the public are speaking out about their frustration.

Fraser Health posted an update on Saturday advising Delta and residents in the surrounding area that Delta Hospital would experience a “temporary service interruption” from 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, to 7 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23.

The public health authority that serves over two million people in B.C. also announced a second overnight closure from Sunday, Feb. 23, at 9:30 a.m. to Monday, Feb. 24, at 6:30 am.

According to Fraser Health, the closures would ensure that all patients already in the ER could be seen by a physician before the end of their shift. It was also the first time that an Emergency Department service interruption was implemented at Delta Hospital.

“Fraser Health is working closely with BC Emergency Health Services to ensure patients requiring a high level of care are directed or transferred to an appropriate hospital emergency service,” stated Fraser Health in its temporary service interruption announcements.

“Anyone with a life-threatening emergency, such as chest pain, difficulty breathing or severe bleeding, should call 9-1-1 immediately and will be transported to the nearest available and appropriate facility.”

Leanne Heppell, Executive Vice President and Chief Ambulance Officer of BC Emergency Health Services, told Daily Hive that it maintains close working relationships with health authority partners and actively participates in discussions as they work to prevent emergency department service interruptions and fill vacant shifts.

“We were aware of, and participated in, Fraser Health’s planning meetings related to Delta Hospital over the weekend,” added Heppell. “We worked with Fraser Health to ensure EHS resources were effectively deployed to support the Delta region and notified our staff in advance, offered overtime, and redistributed resources as needed.”

Members of the public voiced their concerns about Delta Hospital’s emergency room closures on social media.

“Never seen this before… Oh boy,” said one commenter on Facebook.

“This is shocking to see that Delta Hospital which serves a relatively large and well-populated region is having such closures,” added another person on Reddit.

Nick Eagland, senior consultant, public affairs for Fraser Health, told Daily Hive that Delta Hospital Emergency Department is open today and is accepting patients. A service interruption is not anticipated for this evening.

“Physician staffing challenges and high patient volumes impacting health systems are not unique to Fraser Health; however these challenges are being felt locally,” said Eagland. “We are taking every action we can to provide our patients and their families continuous access to emergency services across our communities.

“When there are physician staffing gaps we work with physicians collaboratively through our regional network and our provincial partners to fill vacant shifts when they occur. Service interruptions are only used as a last resort when we have explored all opportunities. We are grateful to physicians in Fraser Health and across British Columbia who have been taking on extra shifts to support our hospitals.”

Delta Hospital Foundation

Delta Hospital

Josie Osborne, Minister of Health for the Government of B.C., spoke with members of the media on Monday afternoon and expressed empathy with the residents of Delta and patients of its hospital.

“It is so hard for anybody in any community to get that kind of news, because everybody wants to depend and trust on the fact that the emergency department is going to be open for them,” said Osborne. “So it’s understandably incredibly disconcerting, to say the least, and people are understandably upset and want to know that we are taking every step possible.”

B.C.’s health minister said that most emergency room closures occur because of staffing shortages and can happen last minute. It is unclear if temporary service interruptions could happen again at Delta Hospital’s ER or other hospitals in the region.

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Eric Buermeyer / Shutterstock

” There are shortages sometimes in physicians or nurses. They can be quite last minute in certain cases when somebody is ill and when people are on leave for various reasons,” Osborne added.

“And so this is why it’s so important to have enough healthcare workers in our B.C. public healthcare system to be able to run our work, and that’s why it’s so important that we continue to do everything we are to fast track the licensure of internationally trained doctors, to attract more nurses to work here in British Columbia, to ensure that we have the people that we need to run our public health care system. We are making progress on that work, but there are times like this.”

Dr. Charlene Lui, president of Doctors of BC, echoes the Minister’s statements.

“Doctors of BC are aware of challenges with staffing at emergency rooms around the province,” said Lui.

“The ER closures are multi-factorial in what is causing it. It’s related to many things, including not being able to get enough doctors and nurses to work the shifts. Shortages of physicians are not a new thing, including family and specialist physicians.

We need to be training more physicians and making the work environment better. Decreasing administrative burdens and supporting the physicians ability to see patients.

Doctor of bc are asking health authorities and the province for the opportunity to create an ER stabilization plan.

Delta Hospital wasn’t the only healthcare facility forced to close its emergency rooms over the weekend. Interior Health temporarily shut down the ER at Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt as well as at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater on Sunday night.

BC Nurses Union President Adriane Gear told Daily Hive that it is unfortunate that emergency room closures happening in smaller rural communities have been normalized.

“It’s not okay and it has a great impact on those residents,” said Gear. “What is the provincial strategy? Each health authority has its responsibility, but what are we doing from a provincial perspective? People are leaving because of working conditions. Until we address retention, we’re not going to solve this problem.

“What are we doing to support nurses who want to work in the ERs? The ones who are working are shouldering a tremendous burden. We have negotiated minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, including in the ER, which will help retain nurses and make it safer for patients.”

Fraser Health shared that Delta Hospital sees an average of 24 patient visits between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. on weekend nights. Of these, the majority are low acuity patients who bring themselves to the hospital.

Daily Hive has reached out to the City of Delta, and the BC Emergency Health Services, among other organizations, and will update this story.

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