B.C. health authority CEO abruptly departs amid financial concerns, service pressures

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne won’t say why the president and chief executive of British Columbia’s largest health authority has abruptly left the job after more than six years at the helm.

Dr. Victoria Lee, who earned more than $450,000 last year, walked away from the troubled organization this week as the provincial government bears down on overspending and administrative costs in health care.

The Fraser Health Authority serves two million people and runs Surrey Memorial Hospital, which has one of the busiest emergency departments in the country. Rapid population growth in the region has strained services, leading to emergency-room diversions and prompting some of the authority’s 50,000 health workers to go public with concerns about staffing and patient care.

The Surrey Board of Trade, prior to the provincial election last fall, called for more health care infrastructure in Fraser Health. It said in a statement: “Exponential population growth continues. Services in Surrey are severely insufficient. Residents can’t be treated within the city’s borders for the three leading causes of death – heart attack, stroke, and trauma, in addition to necessary specialty pediatric services.”

With all those pressures, the health authority’s spending, in the latest financial update, was $1.1-billion over budget. The Premier’s office has directed the Health Minister to reduce the cost of administration of the health care system to focus resources on the front lines.

As well, the NDP promised in the last election to conduct a review of B.C.’s six health authorities with the goal of driving down costs, although that initiative has yet to begin.

The next provincial budget will be delivered on March 4, and the NDP government has signalled that it will be looking for spending restraint in the face of U.S. tariff threats. In a report Thursday, the Conference Board of Canada estimated that the province’s GDP would contract by 1.2 per cent if the United States proceeds with 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian imports.

Health care is the province’s largest single area of spending, and is currently forecast to consume almost $37-billion in expenditures this fiscal year – 40 per cent of the entire budget.

Ms. Osborne told reporters she was not involved in Dr. Lee’s departure, and that severance negotiations are up to the health authority’s board of directors and Dr. Lee to work out. “This is a decision that was taken by the board. Of course, it’s their responsibility and authority to do that, and they have made the mutual decision to part ways,” she said.

The Fraser Health Authority announced in a press release Tuesday that “effective immediately, the board and Dr. Victoria Lee have mutually agreed that she will be moving on from Fraser Health to pursue other opportunities.”

Her interim replacement is Dr. Lynn Stevenson, a health administration professor at the University of B.C. who is a former associate deputy minister of health, and a former senior executive at Island Health, Fraser Health and BC Cancer.

Dr. Lee was appointed president and CEO in 2018, but has served the health authority for a total of 15 years. She was credited in the news release for leading “transformational changes” and for navigating the agency through the pandemic.

Adriane Gear, president of the BC Nurses’ Union, said in an interview Thursday that working conditions in Fraser Health, and at Surrey Memorial in particular, are “deplorable,” but she did not point a finger at Dr. Lee’s management.

“With the population growing, the demands at Surrey Memorial are increasing daily and our members are not feeling supported. This isn’t just a blip – it’s a chronic, worsening condition,” she said. “But the issues are not unique to Fraser Health.”

However, BC Conservative health critic Trevor Halford said that Dr. Lee’s departure was overdue, and that board chair Jim Sinclair should have been removed at the same time.

“What took so long?” Mr. Halford said in an interview. “I talk to front-line workers in Fraser Health every day, and every day, they say the same thing, that there’s been a significant erosion and trust in the senior leadership at Fraser Health.” He pointed to lengthy emergency-room wait times at Surrey Memorial, and ER closings at smaller hospitals that led to patients being diverted.

Mr. Sinclair declined interview requests.