South Surrey MLA concerned about film set at Peace Arch Hospital
The film set alludes to the larger healthcare crisis at play, south of the Fraser River
Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock saw an empty room turn into a film set. (Wikicommons/Canuckle)
The City of Surrey hosts one hospital for a population of over 600,000.
Surrey Memorial Hospital is B.C.’s second-largest hospital, heavily impacted by overcrowding and understaffing. Recently, Fraser Health leased the neighbouring George Point Inn for $4.5 million, to try to alleviate overcrowding.
Reports of overcrowding at Surrey Memorial Hospital are a mile long, and Dr. Randeep Gill, who works at the hospital, knows the story all too well.
“We service not only Surrey residents, but patients from Peace Arch, Langley, and Delta because all of those other sites have even less services than we do,” he says.
“The biggest crisis we’re facing right now at Surrey Memorial is the lack of in-patient beds. The bed capacity is about 300 to 350 per cent less than Vancouver, for the same population.”
Gill also says he has had to send patients to other hospitals because of overcrowding, notably people who are pregnant or arriving from the Fraser Valley.
Twenty-five minutes away from Surrey Memorial Hospital stands Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock. Days prior to the hotel rental at Surrey Memorial Hospital, lights, cameras, and a film crew overtook an acute care unit at Peace Arch Hospital.
“The filming took place in a very small, closed, non-active unit [that was] being prepared for upcoming renovations,” said Fraser Health, in a statement about the Paramount film set.
Elenore Sturko, MLA for South Surrey, disagrees.
“The fact that we have this space within a healthcare setting that should be used for healthcare purposes [is what upset me],” Sturko says.
“I think having a robust film industry in British Columbia is amazing, but we don’t have an amazing healthcare system right now.”
Sturko learned about the film set from the media. She later posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the rental.
“It’s inexcusable to have one hospital that is beyond maxed out, … and to find out there was another space we could have brought some long-term care patients who are waiting for accommodation to go [to], … to lessen the burden on Surrey Memorial, that actually outraged me,” she says.
“Not only are the patients suffering at times in Surrey Memorial, but doctors, nurses, and allied healthcare workers are stretched beyond capacity on a daily basis,” said Sturko.
Sturko says she’s heard from healthcare workers and community members alike about the crisis at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
“I’ve heard horror stories of people receiving terminal cancer diagnoses in the hallway with other people around them, no privacy,” she says. “We should be utilizing spaces that are underutilized right now, even those that are awaiting renovation.”
The unit at Peace Arch Hospital could have been used for patients awaiting long-term care to create space for patients needing acute care at Surrey Memorial Hospital, Sturko says.
Fraser Health said no hospital services were impacted during filming, and “film shoots in unused spaces … generate revenue to directly support patient care and improve infrastructure.”
“I understand they had said the money goes back into healthcare, but we’re not in the revenue generating business. We are in the healthcare business,” Sturko says. “The priority of this government should be ensuring that healthcare spaces are used for health.”
Another hospital is being built in Surrey’s Cloverdale area, near Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Tech campus, set to be completed by 2030. Surrey’s population is expected to surpass Vancouver’s within the decade, yet in terms of hospitals, Surrey is lagging behind Vancouver’s six hospitals.
