An emergency room doctor from two Metro Vancouver hospitals is alleging harassment and bullying due to her efforts to shine light on problems putting patients and medical staff at risk.
Dr. Kaitlin Stockton filed a B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim June 6 against the Fraser Health Authority (FHA), alleging problems at New Westminster’s Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) and Port Moody’s Eagle Ridge Hospital (ERH).
The claim said Stockton has worked at the hospitals since October 2017, earning $350,000 a year. She is also a UBC clinical assistant professor.
The claim said FHA singled her out for bullying, harassment and threats to her professional reputation and livelihood.
It said that, over the last two years, Stockton and her colleagues repeatedly advocated for FHA to respond to the deteriorating working conditions in the hospitals, and increasingly unsafe and substandard patient care due to overcapacity and resource shortages.
“FHA has ignored these efforts and done little to nothing to improve working conditions,” said the claim filed by Toronto employment lawyer Kathryn Marshall.
The claim asserts working conditions are physically, psychologically and clinically unsafe, leading to severe and preventable harm to patients, physicians and other medical staff.
“This includes physical injuries, mental health injuries, and widespread burnout among physicians and other medical staff,” it said.
“The hospitals are now routinely operating with four to six unfilled emergency physician shifts per day,” the claim said. “Wait times have sky-rocketed, now routinely reaching 10-14 hours, as have patient left without being seen rates.”
Unsafe working conditions
The claim said doctors and nurses must deal with at-times violent attacks by patients (and even a pit bull in one instance), exposure to narcotic smoke, threats, verbal abuse from patients and their family members, and other threats to the working environment.
“As an example, when Dr. Stockton asked security personnel to search the patient who was found with a machete for additional weapons, she was told they were unable to do so,” the claim said. “This was one week after another patient brandished a machete in the same ER while threatening to kill staff.”
The claim alleges medical staff “suffer from moral distress, moral injury, and burnout from being forced to provide unsafe, substandard, or undignified care due to overcapacity and resource shortages.”
And, it claims, FHA has fostered an unsafe and toxic workplace. It said staff fear speaking out or advocating for themselves and patients due to a culture of retaliation against those who do.
Lapu Lapu Day tragedy
The claim said physicians requested that the hospital administrator activate a code orange for the April 26 mass casualty event when a car drove into the crowd at the East Vancouver Lapu Lapu Festival, killing 11 and injuring dozens of others.
The claim said RCH was notified it 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 claim said. “This code orange requested was also denied by FHA.”
The wait-time sign
The claim said ER staff at Eagle Ridge Hospital have found themselves at a stage of critical overcapacity with resource shortages, and were unable to deliver timely care to critically ill patients.
Stockton said staff did obtain permission from the local department head to post a sign in the waiting room of the ER, informing patients of resource shortages and long waits.
“The sign was shared on social media by patients, and two news outlets ran a story about the sign,” the claim said.
The claim said FHA’s response was to issue a press statement calling the sign false.
It asserts FHA is more interested in public perception than patient and staff safety.
Then, Stockton alleged, one FHA executive obtained CCTV footage of her placing the sign and used the “footage to single out, bully, and threaten Dr. Stockton.”
She alleged the executive contacted a high-ranking ERH official, who then called Stockton to tell her FHA executives were “extremely angry” and allegedly told her she was “misinforming the public” and in breach of the Canadian Medical Association’s code of conduct.
The claim alleges the ERH official threatened to revoke Stockton’s hospital privileges and to file a complaint against her with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia if she did not write an apology to FHA and admit her alleged wrongdoing.
She contacted the Canadian Medical Protective Association for a lawyer who told her she was dealing with workplace harassment.
The claim said Stockton submitted a formal workplace complaint Jan. 23, 2025, requesting an apology from FHA leadership for the threats and harassment, an investigation into the conduct of those involved in this incident and a review of workplace policy to ensure that physicians feel safe and supported when raising concerns about patient safety.
The claim said a response several days later said the complaint did not “warrant further review.”
Constructive dismissal and damages
The claim alleges Stockton was constructively dismissed as a result of FHA’s legal obligation to provide a workplace free of harassment and bullying.
In addition to other damages to be determined, Stockton is looking for at least $600,000 in damages.
FHA spokesperson Krystle Landert said the authority doesn't comment on matters that are before the courts.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
