Preventable deaths, violent attacks: doctor alleges deteriorating conditions at Fraser Health hospitals

CBC

09-06-2025

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An emergency room physician is blowing the whistle on deteriorating conditions in hospitals managed by B.C.'s Fraser Health Authority — claiming in a lawsuit that her job was threatened after she and other doctors sought to warn patients about a potentially dangerous situation.
Kaitlin Stockton has worked in the emergency rooms at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster and Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody since October 2017, where she claims rapid decline in the past two years has led to "increasingly unsafe and substandard patient care."
She sat down with CBC News to lay out the concerns detailed in the lawsuit — which include the health authority's alleged rejection of a plea to implement a mass casualty protocol in the aftermath of the alleged attack at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver.
"Patients are falling through the cracks and will continue to fall through the cracks unless something changes," she says.
"Knowing you're not providing standard of care to someone who needs it is a horrible feeling, it is not how I was trained, and it's not what patients deserve."
One fateful shift
Stockton filed a notice of civil claim against Fraser Health Authority in B.C. Supreme Court last week, seeking $500,000 for wrongful dismissal and damages for what she claims is "high-handed, arrogant and contemptuous" behaviour.
The lawsuit paints a picture of a toxic work environment, where burnt-out medical professionals endure violent assaults from patients and fear reprisal for speaking publicly.
Stockton says her concern about the system collapsing now outweighs her fear of speaking out.
CBC News has viewed a letter signed by 50 B.C. emergency room physicians stating they support Stockton's "dedication to advocating for high-quality patient care." They also call for improvements to the emergency care system, for transparency and accountability from Fraser Health and say they require a workplace that is "free from psychological harm."
While the letter says the doctors are not commenting on the specific allegations in Stockton's lawsuit, it says they support her right to pursue legal action against Fraser Health.
CBC News reached out to Fraser Health for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
According to Stockton's lawsuit, her experience culminated in one shift, on Nov. 18, 2024, when she and other medical staff chose to warn patients that the emergency room at Eagle Ridge hospital was reaching a breaking point.
Stockton says as her shift progressed, conditions became "wildly unsafe" as patients spilled into hallways and packed the waiting room.
Physicians on shift reached out to a series of senior leaders, asking for a number of measures including offloading patients to different areas of the hospital, cancelling elective surgeries and diverting ambulances.
But those requests were allegedly denied.
With conditions in the ER spiralling, the lawsuit claims doctors hatched a plan. With the approval of a local department head, Stockton and her colleagues decided to post a sign warning patients the hospital was short on resources and patients needing care would face lengthy delays, the lawsuit says.
The sign called the wait times "unacceptable" and urged patients to contact the provincial government.
"The sign was shared on social media by patients, and two news outlets ran a story about the sign," the lawsuit claims.
"Instead of taking the time to reflect and take accountability for their inaction, which ultimately contributed to severe patient harm and moral injury among the staff working that day, [the health authority] issued a press statement calling the sign 'false.'"
Executives 'extremely angry'
The lawsuit alleges that after Fraser Health obtained CCTV footage of Stockton placing the sign, they used it to "single out, bully, and threaten" her.
She claims she was told Fraser Health executives were "extremely angry" about the sign and "they were indeed seeking to hold Dr. Stockton accountable for it."
Stockton claims Eagle Ridge Hospital's medical director threatened to revoke her hospital privileges and file a complaint against her if she did not write an apology admitting to wrongdoing.
The lawsuit alleges Stockton was fired through "constructive dismissal" — when the actions of a employer force an employee to resign.
Stockton claims no questions were asked about the conditions in the emergency room that led physicians to take action.
Instead, she was told she had "no right" to put up the sign.
"This is extremely common, this happens all the time. It happens to nurses and physicians, and this is why the public doesn't have the truth about what is happening in our publicly funded hospitals, in our emergency rooms," she says.
"Even when we collectively begged and pleaded for help, none was given. We felt helpless watching patients in the waiting room suffer, even though we were asking for help."
'One of those dreams where you're screaming for help'
The lawsuit also claims Fraser Health has failed to respond to physicians' calls for help and sought to silence staff who spoke up about conditions.
For example, it says the health authority sent cease and desist letters to physicians in 2023 after they asked for more transparency around congestion in emergency rooms and, on another occasion, suspended and investigated a nurse who advocated for better security protocols after being attacked by a patient wielding a machete.
The most high-profile example is alleged to have happened on April 26, following the alleged Lapu-Lapu Day festival attack in Vancouver, which left 11 people dead and dozens more injured.
Royal Columbian Hospital — one of two dedicated specialized trauma centres in B.C. — was allegedly notified "they would be receiving up to 10 critically injured patients."
"Knowing this would overwhelm the hospital's already stretched resources, the physicians working at the time repeatedly requested that the hospital administrator activate a Code Orange," the lawsuit says.
A code orange is a protocol that allows emergency rooms to urgently respond to disaster and mass casualty events by evacuating patients to other areas of the hospital, and bringing in additional personnel to assist with triaging.
The lawsuit claims Fraser Health denied the request for a code orange.
Stockton told CBC News she fears a lower standard of care will become normalized if change isn't implemented.
"It feels like one of those dreams where you're screaming for help but no sound is coming out. And it just drains the life out of you after a while," she says.
"At first you get really angry, but after a while of seeing the same thing over and over again, you just become hopeless."
'Extremely unsafe for patients'
The lawsuit says working conditions in the two hospitals are "unpleasant, undignified, and extremely unsafe" for patients — sometimes resulting in loss of life.
"Multiple Patient Safety and Learning System entries have been initiated because of severe, preventable harm, including deaths related to overcrowding," the notice of civil claim says.
"The hospitals are now routinely operating with four to six unfilled emergency physician shifts per day," it reads. It alleges wait times have sky-rocketed, "now routinely reaching 10-14 hours."
The lawsuit also claims a series of violent incidents have occurred at the hospitals.
In January 2025, a machete-wielding man entered the emergency room at Eagle Ridge Hospital and threatened a nurse.
In separate attacks, the lawsuit claims patients have strangled, kicked and attacked nurses who have suffered a dislocated a jaw, concussion and broken ribs.
A large pit bull was also allegedly allowed into Eagle Ridge Hospital's emergency room for hours in April, attacking a doctor and biting his arm.
"These events are so common that they are normalized and are rarely if ever acknowledged by FHA management and leadership," the suit alleges.
A June 2025 report by the Montreal Economic Institute found Eagle Ridge Hospital has some of the longest emergency room wait times among Metro Vancouver hospitals.
According to a report published in the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, long wait times in emergency rooms in Canada contribute to thousands of deaths per year.
"Patients are dying while waiting for care. In my experience, and the experience of my colleagues, this is happening in B.C.," says Stockton, who adds the herculean efforts of frontline staff are holding emergency rooms together.