Overflow ER opens at BC Children's Hospital as surgical patients plead for information

BC Children's Hospital is seeing a "surge storm" in young patients, prompting the facility to open an overflow unit for their emergency department.

BC Children’s Hospital is seeing a “surge storm” in young patients, prompting the facility to open an overflow unit for their emergency department.

CTV News has obtained an internal memo sent to all staff and care providers at BC Women’s and Children’s hospitals on Tuesday, advising them that they are now “triaging lower level acuity patients from the emergency department to a separate overflow area” in order to “manage the high volume of patients.”

The document describes the emergency department “mostly seeing viral illnesses, including Enterovirus/Rhinovirus, and now increasing presentations of influenza and RSV, as well as steady COVID-19.” It indicates that the hospitals expect to see even more sick children come through the doors.

Shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday, the posted wait to be seen by a doctor at BC Children’s Hospital was 11 hours and 52 minutes.

As CTV News reported last week, pediatric surgeries are being cancelled and delayed as the scant ICU beds available for children recovering from life-improving or -saving procedures are occupied by youngsters struggling to breathe on their own due to serious respiratory illness.

Rachel Armstrong’s son, Jackson, is one of them. He’s been waiting for insertion of a mechanical valve into his aorta since May, with multiple tentative and confirmed surgery dates postponed in that time.

“This'll be (surgery) number 11 that we're waiting on now … They all know Jackson by name. We're no stranger to the hospital,” she said, speaking to CTV News in the Abbotsford hotel where they’ve been staying for weeks.