Parents complain of frustrating waits at Vancouver emergency rooms

Some parents in Metro Vancouver are speaking out about their recent frustrating experiences trying to get emergency health care for their kids, saying BC’s hospitals are too overwhelmed with patients to provide adequate care.

Anthony Pavlakovic took his daughter to BC Children’s Hospital on Saturday, and after waiting 35 minutes to be checked in while she was bleeding, the family decided to leave for St. Paul’s.

Pavlakovic had been trimming his almost-six-month-old daughter’s toenails while his wife nursed her, and he accidentally caught part of her pinky toe in the clipper, he told Daily Hive. The infant “started bleeding profusely,” he said, and the couple decided to seek care when it didn’t slow down after several minutes.

“You’re just scared, right?” Pavlakovic said. “We just needed someone professional to look at it … and say no, it’s fine, it doesn’t need stitches or, you know, okay we need stitches.”

When the couple got to BC Children’s, they got in line to register with the triage nurse. But after 30 minutes, the line hadn’t moved. Their daughter was still bleeding, and no one had even asked their name or what was wrong.

Pavlakovic approached the triage staffer and told her his infant was bleeding and he didn’t know how to stop it. He said she made a phone call, and then told him he needed to wait in line.

“Let me get this straight. I’m in an emergency hospital with a baby with flowing blood, and you’re not even going to look at it for, like, one second?” he said. “They have no idea how much blood or how bad it is. They have no clue.”

At that point, the family left for St. Paul’s Hospital downtown, where Pavlakovic said his infant was checked by the triage person within minutes of arrival.

“The crux of the issue is that [on] that day at Children’s Hospital, they didn’t know how to accept patients … I bring my daughter, and it’s a total failure.”

BC Children’s Hospital told Daily Hive it’s committed to ensuring every child gets the care they need with most urgent patients attended to first. The hospital said it couldn’t comment on Pavlakovic’s experience to maintain patient confidentiality, but did say the emergency department is experiencing high volumes right now with an average of 154 visits per day.

The hospital’s emergency department has been seeing mostly viral illnesses recently, including enterovirus/rhinovirus with increasing cases of influenza, RSV, and a steady rate of COVID-19 cases.

” The increase in RSV and flu is expected, based upon trends we are seeing from other parts of Canada and across the globe,” the hospital said. “Staff are not immune and are also coming down with more illnesses this year than last year. Staffing resource challenges are a reality across the entire health-care system.”

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Mom Rachel Thaxton also shared on Twitter that she’s afraid for children and BC’s medical system after she took her sick two-year-old daughter to BC Children’s and then Burnaby Hospital this week.

The mother first stopped at Children’s, but saw the lineup to register was out the door.

She headed to Burnaby Hospital, where the child’s temperature was taken at triage around 10 pm, but by 4 am they hadn’t been seen. Instead of waiting to see a doctor, Thexton decided to leave and let her daughter rest at home.

It’s 4am. Just waited over 6 hrs at Burnaby Hospital ER and no one even took my 2 year old daughter’s temp accept at triage at around 10pm. I’m afraid for our kids and our medical system. We left. She is exhausted and needs sleep. 😞

— Rachel Thexton (@rthexton) November 16, 2022

Emergency Department Wait Times, a website that tracks estimated wait times in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, currently estimates the total length of an emergency visit to BC Children’s at just under six hours.

Vancouver General Hospital has the longest expected length of stay at nearly 10 hours.

BC is in the middle of respiratory virus season, with cold, flu, and COVID-19 circulating.

Government of BC

In recent weeks there’s been a spike in people seeking medical care for respiratory symptoms — particularly children.

Government of BC

According to Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, only 51% of kids have received their first COVID-19 vaccine — making them a much less immunized population compared to adults.

In addition, many children haven’t been exposed to as many respiratory viruses as typical cohorts because they spent more time at home during COVID-19 restrictions. For many young children in the province, this is their first true respiratory virus season.

Adding to the problem is a nationwide shortage of children’s Tylenol and Advil, and some parents have no place to turn for medication but the hospital.

Daily Hive reached out to Vancouver Coastal Health, but it declined to comment and referred questions to the BC Ministry of Health. The government didn’t answer Daily Hive’s questions about wait times, instead pointing to Wednesday’s briefing from Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix where data was shown suggested emergency department visits are only slightly up from September and October.

Government of BC

Henry encouraged parents to seek help from their primary care provider or call 811.

“Yes, when you do go to emergency departments, some of them are very busy,” Henry said. “But if you are concerned about your child, don’t put off that visit if you need to go to the emergency department. You will be seen, you will be triaged, and we will all need to be patient.”

With files from Daily Hive’s Nikitha Martins