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BC doctors are sounding the alarm as patients in emergency departments across the province are being "warehoused" for 24 to 48 hours.

"Our emergency departments are on red alert," Dr. Gord McInnes of the Doctors of BC association said in a news release.

Patients are waiting up to eight hours to see a doctor in some cases, leaving time for their conditions to decline well before they're tended to, according to the news release.

The association pointed to a recent email sent to Lower Mainland doctors from a physician at Langley Memorial Hospital advising them to avoid sending patients there. The emergency department was "overrun with patients," the email read.

Lower Mainland hospitals aren't the only ones with emergency department struggles.

Royal Inland Hospital has struggled with low staffing for many months, while smaller hospitals in communities like Clearwater and Merritt have had periodic closures because of staffing issues.

“We need the provincial government to work with us on real solutions to relieve the pressures in our hospitals, which are the root of the problems in our emergency departments," McInnes said. "Solutions will need to address some of the biggest challenges, among them the need for more beds to build capacity, and to address the shortage of health care staff.”

The association suggests changes the province and health authorities could make that would streamline emergency departments and get patients the care they need more quickly.

The first is to allow physicians and nurses to call a "code orange," which is typically used for disasters and mass casualty events. The protocol would allow staff to move patients to other areas of the hospital when emergency departments are already full, but provincial health policies specifically state a code orange is not to be used for emergency departments at capacity.

The second suggestion is to allow staff to move acutely ill patients into a specialty ward and switch their place with other patients that are waiting to be discharged, rather than waiting for that patient to leave.

“Our patients are suffering, and the doctors struggling to provide their care are tired and distressed. Our patients need and deserve better. They deserve to know that they will be safe, and that they will be cared for when they go to an emergency department for help. The dire situation we are facing now cannot continue," McInnes said.

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