Delta city council holds emergency meeting after hospital’s weekend-long ER closure

The disruptions began overnight on Saturday and continued through Sunday until Monday morning at the B.C. healthcare facility's ER.

Delta’s mayor has called for an urgent council meeting after the emergency room at the Delta Hospital was closed for two nights over the weekend.

Fraser Health says Delta Hospital’s ER was shut down overnight both Saturday and Sunday due to a doctor shortage.

The closures lasted from 9:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. the following morning, to ensure that any patients already in the department could see a physician before their shifts ended at 1:30 a.m.

During the service interruptions, emergency-trained nurses were available to support walk-in patients needing basic first aid and re-direct or transfer patients with urgent needs to a neighbouring hospital.

“Fraser Health is working closely with B.C. Emergency Health Services to ensure patients requiring a high-level of care are directed or transferred to an appropriate hospital emergency service,” wrote the health authority in a news release.

It urged anyone with a life-threatening emergency, such as chest pain, difficulty breathing or severe bleeding, to call 911 immediately. They would be transported to the nearest available and appropriate facility, the release said.

Delta Mayor George Harvie has called the closures an “unacceptable” public safety issue.

“This is a critical concern, and I really felt for the small cities that were facing this over the last number of years. All of a sudden here it is coming to Delta. We’re 120,000 people, we need this hospital open, and we don’t have that many alternatives on transferring patients somewhere else,” he said.

Harvie is concerned about delays in care for patients that must seek help at other hospitals.

“Now, the big question we have is, how long is this going to go on? And, if it does come into a full closure of the emergency room, will there be physicians not available to work the morning and afternoon shifts?” said Harvie.

With Delta being an isolated city, a full closure could jeopardize a patient’s wellbeing, he said.

“If that happens during the day, we face tremendous transportation congestion, and that’s our concern,” said the mayor.

Harvie says it’s not just Delta residents being impacted, with patients coming from Richmond and Surrey as well.

“I think it’s going to turn into a Metro Vancouver problem. We’ll have to just see what can be done,” said Harvey.

He plans to meet with his city council and staff Monday to decide how to best move forward.

“I can’t say who’s to blame, but certainly the province itself has to take better steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen,” said Harvie, adding how he is calling for the province to hire more doctors.

“Should we not have support from the province for a critical care unit which will take off the stress on our hospital here in the emergency department?” he said.

MLA for Delta South, Ian Paton, said he was shocked when he saw the news.

“When you hear sirens and fire trucks and ambulances, people are thinking now, in the middle of the night, ‘Wow, I wonder if someone’s had a heart attack or a stroke or a serious injury, where are those people going to go?’ said Paton.

Paton says the NDP Government is to blame for the closures.

“We’ve heard the Ministry of Health from the NDP government stand up and tell us, ‘Don’t worry about a thing. We’re fixing the problem. We’re going to hire more doctors.’ And yet, year after year after year, we see the same thing happening, not only in rural B.C., but now it’s happening right here in the Fraser Valley,” said Paton.

Paton says he sees many gaps in the current system.

“Doctors have incentives to take on shifts at different hospitals, and we’re hearing that Delta hospital is not one of the ones that prioritizes incentives,” said the MLA.

He believes doctors are instead taking shifts at neighbouring Peace Arch, Surrey Memorial or Richmond Hospitals instead.

Paton also says the B.C. government is not hiring new doctors fast enough.

“The NDP have hung up so many professionals that have come into this country with professional status, as doctors or nurses or veterinarians or whatever, that are driving taxis because they’re not getting permitted to work in this province, and that has to be sped up,” said Paton.

According to data released by the province in September 2024, B.C. has added 835 new primary-care family doctors who are taking on patients since launching its new physician pay model in February 2023.

The province says it’s doing more to attract health professionals and making it quicker and easier to recognize international credentials.

It says it’s also increased post-secondary seats so more people can train for future healthcare careers closer to home.

Overnight ER closures were also implemented at Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt and Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater over the weekend.

Those temporary closures are more commonplace in smaller communities, but were unheard of in the Lower Mainland until recently.

It’s unclear if there will be further ER closures at Delta Hospital in the near future.

CTV News had reached out to the Ministry of Health and Fraser Health for comment.