Don't expect to be sent to Richmond Hospital if you break an arm or leg.
An emergency orthopedic care agreement between Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health involving Delta and Richmond hospitals expired last month and wasn't renewed.
In place for several years, the agreement saw patients requiring orthopedic care not provided in Delta, including broken bone surgery or having a cast put on, receive those services in Richmond.
In exchange, Fraser Health provided operating room time in Delta for orthopedic surgeons.
Delta Hospital now as a new agreement with Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, so patients needing their broken bones tended to will have to go there.
"Richmond didn't have the capacity to continue on with it as far as the referrals and on the Richmond end they had no interest in carrying on. It was replaced, effective November, with the exact same protocol and arrangement with Royal Columbian Hospital, so the level of service is the same and types of referrals are the same," explained Fraser Health spokesperson Roy Thorpe-Dorward.
Even before the agreement had expired, Delta patents had been sent to New Westminster because Richmond Hospital was too busy to see them, he said.
In a letter to Delta CAO George Harvie, who was seeking clarification on what was happening, Nigel Murray, president and CEO of Fraser Health, noted that over the past year at least 70 per cent of patients going to Delta Hospital's ER who required a higher level of orthopedic care had been transferred to New Westminster. He said the formal agreement with Royal Columbian would, in fact, improve timely access to care, as it is no longer necessary to explore alter-nate sites.
Murray said patients requiring cast clinic care are also being seen by surgeons from Royal Columbian Hospital.
"This can be done at the Royal Columbian Hospital cast clinic, or follow up care can be provided in the physicians' own offices/ clinic. Again this is because Richmond Hospital no longer has the capacity to accept these patients from Delta Hospital. Fraser Health does not contract with any private clinic for this service," Murray wrote.
While Delta patients with broken bones can no longer receive care in Richmond, Murray noted orthopedic surgeons from Richmond haven't had their operating room time in Delta reduced. He said that as with any changes based on waitlists and patient requirements, however, OR time allocation could change.
"We monitor the wait times and make changes as required to ensure resources are utilized to the fullest extent possible."
