Fraser Health has installed portables to be used as a “temporary pediatric emergency waiting area” outside Surrey Memorial Hospital to prepare for potential surges during respiratory illness season.
Fraser Health spokesperson Dixon Tam said, in an emailed response, that there has been an increase in Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and influenza across the province.
This could lead to a spike in pediatric volumes this winter, Tam added.
The “portable houses” are heated and have occupancy for 35 people, Tam said.
“This space is dedicated to kids and their families to help ensure the best possible experience – especially during times when visit numbers are high,” Tam said. “This waiting area will provide a sense of comfort, care and reassurance to all children and their family members, during this stop on their care journey.
“While it is difficult to predict the severity of winter surges, Surrey Memorial Hospital still prepares to handle surges to ensure that patients have the best possible access to care and experience with the health-care system.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and surge in repository illnesses has taught Fraser Health the importance of being better prepared to manage increased patient volumes during the winter months, Tam said.
The temporary area is a part of Health Minister Adrian Dix’s “30 promised health care actions” he announced several months earlier.
In June, Dix announced that the province had identified short-term, long-term and medium-term strategies to improve care at – and even expand – Surrey’s bustling and oft-embattled hospital.
READ MORE: On eve of health care rally, Dix hails progress to improve care at Surrey hospital
To support infants, children, youth and their families at Surrey Memorial Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department, a temporary expanded pediatric emergency waiting area has been installed to prepare for potential surges in pediatric patients this winter. #Surrey30 pic.twitter.com/l8RtRQ0Vgc
— Fraser Health (@Fraserhealth) November 8, 2023
READ MORE: State of Surrey Memorial Hospital’s emergency room ‘beyond a crisis’
In November 2022, when Surrey resident Angie Lowis took her five-year-old-son to the pediatric emergency room, she reported there was no where for them to sit.
Lowis said saw some parents holding their sick babies in their arms for hours while they waited.
She was worried that her son might get even more sick if he waited in the emergency room, so she sent him to sit with her husband in the car while they waited
After six hours at the hospital, her son was sent home after being seen by the doctor, who gave him Advil as his cough had improved.
Lowis noted health care workers at the hospital were doing everything within their means to help people but describes the experience in the waiting room as “brutal.”
It is unclear if the temporary pediatric waiting room is open.