Tom Zytaruk’s recent column about the atrocious level of treatment he received at Surrey Memorial Hospital’s emergency room contrasts dramatically with all the syrupy words about Surrey Hospitals Foundation, and progress on the new Cloverdale Hospital, from two provincial cabinet ministers.
Health Minister Josie Osborne announced July 3 that SHF will be designated as Surrey’s designated health-care foundation, in a visit to Cloverdale where the new hospital is under construction. Meanwhile, Bowinn Ma, minister of infrastructure, told the Cloverdale Reporter about progress on the new hospital. It is now scheduled to open in 2030 — five years from now. Construction has already been underway for two years.
Osborne’s announcement raises more questions than it answers. No one questions the great work that SHF has done to raise funds from donors for hospital equipment. Clearly, the province is in no shape to fund much of this equipment, given its record deficit. Having SHF raise funds for the new Cloverdale hospital makes sense.
But what about the Peace Arch Hospital Foundation? Perhaps Osborne thinks it is not a Surrey hospital, as it is geographically located in White Rock. However, it serves large numbers of Surrey residents. PAHF has raised millions for hospital equipment over the years and has been tremendously successful. Should it not also be a designated health-care foundation, given that it raises funds for a hospital primarily serving Surrey residents? The omission from Osborne’s announcement is notable.
Meanwhile, Ma’s comments on the Cloverdale hospital do much to highlight how the current government’s actions contrast with its announcements. The hospital was announced in December 2019, with sod-turning taking place in September 2023. It will take at least four more years for construction to be complete, and the hospital will not open until 2030. That is more than 10 years from announcement to opening.
The new hospital will have 168 beds, which sounds more appropriate for a mid-sized Interior city than for the second hospital in a city which will soon be the largest community in B.C. Make no mistake — those beds are badly needed. However, there won’t be enough of them.
It is good that there will be a cancer centre there. Cancer cases are on the rise, and having a second cancer centre operated by BC Cancer Agency in Surrey is a good step forward.
Politicians love to trumpet their achievements. That is why they will never be caught anywhere near SMH’s emergency room — or for that matter, in any ER across the province. Most of what the public hears about B.C. ERs is that they are closed for varying periods of time, due to a lack of doctors.
While local hospitals have thus far escaped that dubious distinction, conditions faced by members of the public who come to local ERs for help are pretty bleak. Zytaruk’s column graphically illustrates what really goes on there.
He arrived at 7:30 p.m. His first encounter with a doctor came at 5:20 a.m., when he and other sick and exhausted citizens were berated for not waiting in a specific waiting room. They replied that they came into the hallway, because one man in it “had turned it into his private den of chaos.”
Zytaruk’s most important observation was this: “There is truly nothing at all funny about this abomination disguised as a public health-care system.”
He’s 100 per cent right, but you will never hear a cabinet minister make that observation.
Frank Bucholtz writes twice monthly on political issues for Black Press Media publications.
