Delta council has reached out to the province following the closure of the Metro Vancouver community’s emergency room for two consecutive nights during the weekend. Fraser Health attributed the closure at Delta Hospital on Saturday and Sunday nights to challenges in physician staffing.
Mayor George Harvie swiftly organized an emergency council meeting on Monday night to address the ER closures, leading to the unanimous adoption of three motions. The first motion aimed to dispatch a letter to Premier David Eby, Health Minister Josie Osborne, and Fraser Health’s interim CEO Dr. Lynn Stevenson, stressing the significance of the emergency department to the community. The letter also requested details from the province and assurances that measures are being implemented to prevent future closures.
Harvie expressed his determination to advocate for the continuous operation of the emergency department, stating, “Twenty years ago there was a move to close the hospital, but we stood up as a community and fought that. And now here again, we’re having closures at our emergency department, and we’re going to stand up and fight to keep those emergency operations open.”
The second motion invited Fraser Health representatives to present at the council meeting on March 3, elucidating their plans to ensure adequate staffing going forward. Harvie emphasized the importance of direct involvement from hospital workers in finding solutions, asserting, “Fraser Health should sit down with the hospital workers themselves — they’re the ones that know what the problem is.”
The final motion directed staff to return to council with a resolution concerning the necessity of sustainable funding for emergency and urgent care health services across the province.
Additionally, Harvie raised concerns about the limited bus service to and from Delta, coupled with frequent traffic incidents leading to delays. He criticized the 18-hour wait times at Surrey ER as unacceptable, vowing to push hard to prevent such occurrences in the future.
Health Minister Josie Osborne acknowledged the challenges and assured that the province is actively working on short and long-term solutions to maintain ER services. Osborne highlighted initiatives such as increasing medical school seats at the University of B.C. and the upcoming establishment of a medical school at Simon Fraser University in Surrey in 2026. The province is also committed to expanding nursing seats and offering incentives to address shortages in rural healthcare workers.
Despite the efforts, Osborne acknowledged that resolving ER closures is a complex issue that cannot be remedied overnight. The concern over the communication of closure information was also raised, as some learned about the closures through social media posts.
Delta residents expressed anxiety over the closures and the distance to the next hospital, emphasizing the critical role of the fully operational emergency department in serving both the local population and industrial workers in the area.
Harvie revealed that he received no prior notification about the closures, branding it a public safety issue due to the hospital’s pivotal role in catering not only to Delta and the Tsawwassen First Nation’s 120,000 residents but also to the vast workforce in their industrial park, one of the largest in Metro Vancouver.
