Politicians demand answers after latest overnight ER closure in Delta, B.C.

A local MLA and the mayor of Delta, B.C., say that the province isn't doing enough to support the city after Delta Hospital's ER was shut overnight on Monday.

Fraser Health announced that the emergency room at the hospital would have a "service interruption" starting at 7 p.m. Monday and ending at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, calling it a "last resort" after an unexpected physician illness.

Overnight ER closures have become a recurring issue in the Metro Vancouver city of around 110,000 people, with the mayor and council previously writing to the province in February after two closures in a weekend.

Delta Mayor George Harvie said the latest closure shows that the community was being shortchanged by the Fraser Health Authority, and it wasn't getting a fair return on its funding for the hospital.

"We are totally underserved and underfunded by Fraser Health, and it's showing," he told CBC News.

"But again, when one person who becomes ill [and it] shuts down an organization, an emergency department, how fragile is that system?"

Harvie pointed out that Delta was seeing the biggest increases in ambulance wait times since 2018, which he said was compounding the health-care struggles for the community.

WATCH | Delta sees spike in ambulance wait times: 

Delta, B.C., council demands answers on ambulance wait times

2 months ago

Duration 11:34

City of Delta councillors recently unanimously passed a motion to bring a B.C. Emergency Health Services representative in for questioning after it emerged that the city is seeing the biggest increase in emergency response times since 2018. Jennie Helmer, chief operations officer with BCEHS, said that an aging population, complex care requirements and traffic congestion were factors in increasing wait times, and promised to do better.

Ian Paton, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Delta South, said in his eight years as an MLA, he had often heard of ER closures in B.C.'s rural communities.

"But it's rather shocking when it suddenly happens here in Metro Vancouver," he said.

Paton said that the B.C. NDP government's plans to hire more health-care staff was not producing tangible results.

"You can get up and tell us all the time that you're bringing in new people from Alberta or Saskatchewan or from down in Washington state, but we're not seeing the results," the Opposition MLA said.

Harvie is making the case for Delta to have an urgent and primary care centre (UPCC), a form of primary care that he said every other city served by the Fraser Health has.

The mayor argues that having such a service, which provides access to non-emergency care on the same day, would take pressure off the Delta Hospital ER.

"It's not right that people have to be in the emergency department here for hours for something that, you know, an urgent and primary care centre is actually built for," he said.

A spokesperson for Fraser Health apologized for the inconvenience caused by the disruption at Delta Hospital.

In addition to the overnight ER closure on Monday, there was also a closure at the Mission Memorial Hospital overnight on Sunday.

"In 2025, Fraser Health has implemented temporary service interruptions in the Emergency Department three times at Delta Hospital and four times at Mission Memorial Hospital," the spokesperson wrote.

"In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Fraser Health is actively working to stabilize emergency services by addressing staffing shortages, filling vacant shifts, and strengthening physician recruitment efforts," they added.

"We are grateful for the patience and understanding of our communities as we navigate these challenges."