British Columbia Struggles with Overcrowded Hospitals

The tragic death of an elderly hospital patient in the Kootenays who was separated from her husband just days before she died has prompted the release of an internal memo pleading with the provincial Liberal government to do something about British Columbia's overcrowded healthcare system.

"Our hospitals are too full. We need to do something about it," states the memo, which was submitted by the chair of the Interior Health Authority (IHA), Dr. Duncan Laidlow, on January 3. The 50-page memo was released last week in the legislature by the NDP.

Ninety-one-year-old Fanny Albo and her husband Al were patients in the acute-care unit at the Trail Hospital. Against her family's wishes, staff abruptly moved the frail senior to a long-term care facility 100 miles away in Grand Forks. She died two days later.

Health Minister George Abbott apologized to the Albo family on behalf of the province and has ordered an investigation into the elderly woman's death. Interior Health Authority CEO Murray Ramsden is conducting a separate review and has also issued a public apology. Ramsden said the IHA as a rule does not separate seniors.

"I have a lot of condolences to the Albo family for what they've gone through. This should not have occurred, and for that I am sorry," he said.

NDP Health Critic David Cubberley says that while hospital overcrowding is common in the entire B.C. health system, it is more acute in the Interior as a result of the government's decision to cut 24 percent of the hospital bed capacity across the region. The shortage has been compounded by the closure of many residential care facilities in local communities, which has had a ripple effect throughout the system resulting in a severe shortage of beds for seniors.

"We have been bringing to light other cases that illustrate a pattern," says Cubberley. "The fact is that according to the IHA's figures there are phenomenally larger volumes of seniors waiting in hospitals and acute care beds for placement, so they're backing up. This has created tremendous pressure on the remaining beds and so there's no margin--there are no extra beds."

Although the IHA says 700 care beds for seniors will be made available in the next three years, Cubberley maintains the Liberal government is "in denial" as to the severity of the situation in the Interior. Whatever the results of both reviews, Cubberley believes the government won't implement changes because it would speak to the "bad choices" they made by heavily cutting bed capacity in the region during their first term in office.

"They need to stop denying reality and face up to it and fix it, and it's going to take concerted action. It's going to take not just the addition of care beds for seniors but it's going to take the restoration or addition of some acute care capacity in the hospital system. And none is planned."

A survey of junior nurses completed in Ontario—one of three similar studies completed recently—suggests that B.C. may not be the only province with overcrowded hospitals. Sixty six percent of survey respondents said they were experiencing symptoms of burnout, including depression and emotional exhaustion. In all three studies, the nurses pointed to work overload and a perceived lack of fairness in the workplace as the cause of their burnout.

This comes as no surprise to Cubberley, who says he's visited some hospitals in the Interior and witnessed how care providers are struggling with an overpowering workload.

"This is a situation that is growing more intolerable by the day. You can feel the pressure on those people. They're holding it together out of their commitment and their concern for the patients—but only just."