Delta Hospital continues to increase the medical services it offers to the community.
In a recent interview with the Optimist, Dr. Robert Shaw, head of internal medicine at the hospital, provided an update on some of the services that have been added as well as what could be on the horizon.
A pacemaker clinic, for those needing annual checks, recently began at the hospital and should be fully up and running within a year.
Shaw said patients with heart rhythm problems in the Fraser Health region normally have a pacemaker implanted at Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody, but testing is now done only at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.
"A lot of these patients are 75-or 80-years-old and it is quite a trip for them to go all the way out there for that. We've been doing pacemaker checks for the last four or five years, but our program director for cardiac services was kind enough to approve the pacemaker clinic for us formally."
The clinic at Delta Hospital will be open a couple of days per month.
A memory clinic for older adults is in its second year at Delta Hospital, providing diagnoses on such conditions as dementia.
Another new service is a nuero psychiatrist to deal with patients with complex psychiatric disorders resulting from neurological trau-ma or disease. Shaw said normally those services are only available at UBC.
Meanwhile, there's a plan to have psychiatrist on call for the ER several days per week starting next year.
Some other specialists, including a lung specialist, have already been added over the past couple of years. Shaw said the medical staff would also like to have other visiting specialists, including a rumotologist and nuerologist.
Bigger changes could be on the horizon for the facility as a new master site plan nears completion.
Earlier this year, Fraser Health launched a planning initiative aimed at determining what services the Ladner facility should provide as well as what building additions might be needed in the coming years.
In a recent interview, Delta Hospital Foundation chair Lois Wilkinson said, "I think the whole community is also interested in these recommendations."
She noted, "The next steps would be to develop a business case for the different priorities and that would go to the Ministry of Health."
The Master Concept Plan is to provide direction over the next 20 years, Wilkinson said, noting it would also provide details of major improvements, land planning and the framework for health services.
The foundation is sharing the cost of the planning exercise, which should be completed by January. Fraser Health and the Ministry of Health will have to sign off on the new site plan.
One of the recommendations in the document is adding a 25-bed psychiatric unit.
Noting the hospital also needs additional acute care beds, Shaw said there's only so much more the facility can provide with the amount of available space.
However, there's enough land where the hospital is located for potential expansions, he said.
"I think if the site plan allows for us to have more room - mind you, we're doing all this with two exam rooms and very often we're having two or three clinics at the same time - we'd be able to invite more specialists to come here," he said.
Shaw pointed out Delta has a strong group of family physicians looking after their patients' care.
"They work very closely with us, obviously, in the hospital and they coordinate their patients care, many with very complex medical problems who are referred to Vancouver, Richmond, to Surrey and Royal Columbian (hospitals). They have to navigate their patients through the medical system and do an extremely good job at it. All we're doing here is, hopefully, making it a bit easier to get timely access to specialists," he said.
Shaw said the average wait time for someone in Vancouver to see a internist is three months, while the average wait time to see a neurologist or rumotologist is six to 12 months. The wait time to see a specialist at Delta Hospital is never more than a month, he said.
