Another closure of the maternity ward at Ridge Meadows Hospital is imminent.
Women planning to give birth at the hospital in Maple Ridge are being warned by health officials that they will be diverted to a different hospital – in either Langley or Surrey – for a five-day period starting later this week.
Fraser Health Authority is telling expectant families that the maternity ward will be closed down from Jan. 15 to 19 – it’s the second shutdown of its type in as many months.
It’s due to a shortage of obstetrician-gynecologist physicians (OB-gyns), explained Dr. Darren Lazare, the co-medical director and regional head of the mother-infant-child-youth program for Fraser Health.
Ridge Meadows Hospital was on maternity diversion from Dec. 18 to 22. Similar shutdowns have been experienced at Peace Arch Hospital in recent weeks, as well.
“It’s not just a holiday problem,” Lazare noted. “It’s a very dynamic situation… it’s a wicked problem.”
It put a lot of stress on the community and the patients, he said, and for that, Lazare was apologetic.
“But our teams are working hard to ensure there is a very cohesive plan in place,” he said.
That means reaching out to scheduled patients ahead of time and redirecting them, ensuring patients coming into the ER are being assessed and redirected, and having adequate staff ready at the receiving hospitals for any influx.
The cause, Lazare said, is routine (ie. retirement) and unexpected departures of OB-gyns, plus the lack of new doctors and specialists moving into the Lower Mainland.
In the case of Ridge Meadows Hospital, they need a minimum of four OB-gyns to operate efficiently. At present, they only have three. He said that means every third day the existing doctors are on call at the hospital, leading to high levels of fatigue and burnout.
“We are trying to recruit at least one new member to the team,” said the Vancouver father of four.
But such shortages are impacting much more than just the maternity wards, Ridge Meadows and Peace Arch Hospitals, or even the region. It’s impacting health care throughout the province and the country, Lazare said.
The doctor’s shortage is also being felt in operating rooms, emergency wards, pediatric wings, and pretty much across the board, he added.
They are understaffed and under-resourced, the doctor said, noting it’s not a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it.
“It’s a problem that has been long-standing,” Lazare said, and the similarly, a permanent solution is likely only long-term, too.
The addition of more positions in training programs will help in the long term, but that’s not helping the immediate need, he said. Even a current national and international recruiting plan is not having the desired effect.
The issue, he said, is the need for more doctors now – especially in the areas of women’s health and maternity. The existing doctor levels are simply unable to keep up with attrition, let alone the massive population growth in the Lower Mainland.
While long-term recruitment efforts are underway by Fraser Health and the provincial ministry, there are also strides being made at the local level, explained Treena Innes, executive director of Ridge Meadows Division of Family Practice.
“We are helping recruit a few specialists in the community, including OB, but we typically don’t [target specialists] as our main organization focus is recruiting family physicians,” Innes said.