Why an ER doctor spoke up — and sued

If you listen to this, I already know you have great taste in podcasts. But maybe, if you're like me, you still wonder if you're missing out on the best stuff. That's where the Sounds Good newsletter can help you out. Every other Thursday, the audio files at CBC Podcasts highlight one must hear show and lots of other new and noteworthy titles. They do conversation starters, they do hidden gems, and they also tell you about the stuff they love that they didn't make. To CBC.ca/SoundsGood to subscribe. I'm Dr. Brian Goldman. This is White Co. Black Art. ERs have become lightning rods for complaints by patients and families. They're crowded and short-staffed. And patients can wait hours. Some can even die waiting to be seen. Many our physicians complain internally or to the media about these conditions. Dr. Caitlin Stockton is a BC physician who went further. When she feared for the safety of patients and colleagues, she did more than complain. And that led to a series of events that resulted in her suing Fraser Health Authority for damages for wrongful dismissal. Earlier this month, the case was resolved, the terms have not been revealed, though both sides say they're satisfied. Still, a doctor taking on an entire health authority is quite unusual. Hello. Welcome. Come on in. Hi. I'm Dave. Hello. For you. Hello. Nice to meet you. Hello. What's your name? Luke. Yeah. This is Ella. Hi, Ella. A few months back. I decided to pay Dr. Stockton a visit and also got to meet her husband, Dr. David Stockton, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital and their two kids, Luke and Ella. How old are you? Seven. Seven. What grade are you going in? Two. What's your favorite subject? Math. Math. Wow. Her kids are young, but it's important to Dr. Stockton that they know she's going through something. What are we talking about? Mummy's battle? Yeah. Also, what do we know about Mummy's battle? I let his mummy bring my Maui hook to her battle. A Maui hook is a bone-like weapon fashioned by the gods of Polynesian lore. It also happens to be a magical item that appears in the kids film Moana as 4-year-old Luke explains. I thought it was a battle that was with swords, so that's why I bring Mummy and Maui hook. I'm getting the sense that fighting the system is a family affair in the Stockton household. Dr. Stockton is 39. From 2017 until early 2025, she worked as an ER physician at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster and Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody. Both are run by Fraser Health, BC's largest health authority. She says dangerous overcrowding and other factors led to safety issues for patients and frontline providers. She says she and her ER colleagues raised concerns on multiple occasions with health care officials, then came a very difficult ER shift in November 2024. What happened in the emergency department at Eagle Ridge Hospital on November 18, 2024 that ultimately led you to sue Fraser Health Authority? I was a 6am physician that day, and when I walked into the emergency department, it was quite clear that they'd had a horrendous night. There were patients everywhere, there were patients in stretchers, in makeshift care areas, recliners, hallway stretchers everywhere, really, and the emergency physician that had worked the overnight shift and the nurses looked like they just ran a marathon, everyone looked exhausted. To be honest, this is not that unusual, but what was unusual this day was the hospital was extraordinarily overcapacity, so we had a very, very limited number of beds in which to see new emergency patients, so we actually had two beds when I started my shift, and you have to consider that we treat an average of 150 patients per day, and about 10% of those patients, 15 patients will need an acute monitored bed, so I very quickly had to deal with two crashing patients almost simultaneously as the lone physician on, of course, we now had no beds in which to see new patients, and we'd had a wave of new patients arrive in the emergency department, and a high number of these patients were critically unwell, and we really did not have the nursing resources that day. So you're on duty that day, how are you feeling as you were kind of going from one difficult patient to another and seeing that they were still coming in and coming in and coming in? I was alarmed. I was really worried, but it was when the next physician came and, you know, they were also really alarmed, then that kind of was evidence to me that we really needed to do something. So what did you do? Well, we asked for help, we called the manager on call, we called the administrator on call, we called executives, and we asked if they could move some of the patients that were occupying emergency department beds into other areas of the hospital. How did they respond? The requests were denied. Some of them actually never even got back to us, and the rest said, you know, we'll try, but that's very unlikely to occur. We also asked for a code orange, which we had asked for on several occasions in the past, it had always been denied in the past, it was denied again that day. A code orange is a hospital plan for external disasters or mass casualties. It's also used for extreme ER overcrowding to call in extra staff and discharge patients who can safely go home. Dr. Stockton says she and her colleagues also requested the hospital cancel elective surgeries and divert ambulances from bringing additional patients to the ER, all of which she says were denied. Note that none of those claims have been proven in court. Dr. Stockton says that day wait times to be seen by a doctor were 16 plus hours. And then we said, okay, well, if you're not going to help us, can you please make an announcement to the patients in the waiting room about what is actually happening here? And the answer again was no. So what did you do then? Then we asked for permission to post a sign for the sake of transparency for patients waiting so that they knew what was going on. And so that patients who are not quite as sick could make an informed decision about whether or not they were willing to wait. So you and a number of colleagues posted a sign? Yeah, it was a group advocacy effort. So it was myself and three other physicians. We all obtained permission from a supervisor to post a sign in the waiting room informing patients of excessive wait times and critical resource shortages. And this is, you know, not the first time we'd done this. And we drafted the sign together and we posted it as a group. I gather the sign was posted on social media and then there were a couple of news stories about the sign. How did Fraser Health react to the news coverage about the sign? They issued a press release calling the sign false and reiterating that the emergency department had just undergone a very expensive renovation in which the footprint had become larger and emphasized that everything was working and functioning normally at Eagle Ridge and there was nothing to see there. How did you feel about that? I felt betrayed. I felt angry. I felt that it was incredibly disrespectful to the providers that were working that day who were traumatized by what happened that day and more over disrespectful to the patients and the families of the patients who suffered that day who did not receive the care that they needed or deserved. What happened next? I received a phone call two days later from a senior member of Fraser Health and they said they wanted to discuss the sign and I started that conversation by expressing my significant discomfort and distress about what happened that day and the things that I witnessed that I felt were preventable and unjust and then I changed the subject and said I put the sign up. This was obviously not a secretive thing. We obtained permission and then he responded that he knew I put the sign up because senior executives within Fraser Health had actually obtained closed caption video of the posting the sign and they were extremely angry, quote unquote, "and looking to hold me accountable for the reputational damage and the negative media coverage that the sign created." David, you're reacting and you're shaking your head right now so you're curing this kind of blow-by-blow from Caitlin's point of view. What are you thinking as you're as this is unfolding? Right, unbelievable, really, it just struck me that in theory everyone in health care is on the same team and it's supposed to be kind of putting patients first and here at Caitlin and her colleagues were trying to do exactly that when they felt they couldn't. They were trying to be transparent about it and then it seemed like they were being silenced. In November 18th, wasn't the first time Dr. Stockton and colleagues raised concerns about the ER. She says they'd been sounding the alarm for years to officials but were mostly brushed aside. To her, the breaking point was the moment at which even patients with critical illnesses like heart attacks, strokes, and sepsis were often facing significant delays in receiving life-saving care. I asked her what factors in the system contributed to the delays. Yeah, there are human resource issues but I don't think that's the biggest part of the problem, to be honest. There's a lot of kind of cultural aspects that I think are to blame here and I think if I were to boil it down it would be lack of accountability. We're supposed to be all on the same team, as David said, but where the accountability lies is with the frontline providers, right? If I patient is not happy with the care I'm providing, they consume me, they can complain to the College of Physicians and Surgeons and I will definitely face repercussions at that. But what about the systemic problems? What about the systemic failures? I don't feel like health authorities are really held accountable to that and I think that has to change. There has to be some shared accountability for the fact that we don't actually have the resources to do our job. Dr. Stockton says that shared accountability wasn't there. She says a health care executive threatened her privileges and license if she didn't apologize for putting up the sign. She obtained legal advice through the Canadian Medical Protective Association and a lawyer advised her, Fraser Health and the hospital's behavior amounted to harassment and bullying. We asked Fraser Health for comment, but it did not provide its version of what happened. Dr. Stockton says she and her lawyer sent a 30-page letter of explanation documenting incidents of patient harm. She says she was then ordered to a mandatory meeting with Fraser Health and afterward heard nothing despite repeated follow-ups, so you waited two months and then what? Then I got a letter saying that they considered this matter closed and they accepted my explanation. They respond formally to the 30-page letter that you sent? No, they didn't. So how do we get from there to you taking the unprecedented step of suing Fraser Health authority? So immediately after this happened, several people, physicians and nurses reached out to me to share similar stories, things that had happened to them when they tried to advocate on behalf of patients and patient safety. This was really surprising to me and sent shivers up my spine that this was a pattern of behavior. I reached out to several physician advocacy groups and they also told me that this story is not unique and there's not much that I can do about it other than follow-respectful workplace complaint, which they did warn me was unlikely to be helpful and I did do that and they were right, it wasn't and that the next step would be to file a lawsuit, but a lot of people cautioned me not to do that. It's too young in my career and it's too risky and it's too expensive and it'll never be successful, et cetera, et cetera. Take me to the moment when you made the decision to sue Fraser Health Authority. Yeah, we were on a ski trip, which was a much-needed respite. We talked about our options and we decided that there was three options. We could move on with our lives, forget it ever happened, which is a very attractive option to this day, or we thought, "Well, we could try the internal channels and if that doesn't work, then we can walk away or we can exhaust internal channels and if that doesn't work, file a lawsuit." We wanted one day of the we climb vacation where we were skiing just the two of us. We decided to put our sun and daycare for the day and to put our eldest in ski lessons. There were three options. We had a beginner, blue, and black and she knew how to ski blue, so I figured she should go for black and then I came home and I told David and he said, "Oh, but she's never skiing black." I said, "Yeah, but why do you do something easy when you can do something hard?" He kind of laughed and then he said, "Yeah, no, that's what I would have done too." We looked at each other and we had a moment and I said, "Oh, well, there's our answer." We're going to sue. I mean, perhaps not in those words, but I think we realize that we're both people who embrace challenge. This is something that needs to be done and we've got the stuff to do it. David, is it fair to call this a family decision? Yeah, it really was. I knew that it was something that Caitlin was considering and she'd obviously received the opinion of council and looked at it as an option, but yeah, she made it clear that she wasn't going to go forward unless it was a family decision because it certainly is something that may take a few years to resolve. Dr. Stockton says she was fired through constructive dismissal, which is when the actions of an employer force an employee to resign. She stopped working for Fraser Health earlier this year. In June 2025, she filed a notice of civil claim against Fraser Health in BC Supreme Court seeking $600,000 for wrongful dismissal and damages for behavior that she claimed was high-handed, arrogant and contemptuous. The claim described unsafe working conditions and substandard patient care because of overcrowding and understaffing. Fraser Health did not file a statement of defense. In July, lawyers for Fraser Health did file two responses, one disputing that the court has jurisdiction over the health authority and another saying the dispute should instead be dealt with through internal arbitration and mediation. We'll be right back. Okay, so there are millions of podcasts and maybe you're cool to stick with the ones you already know you like. But if you're just a little paranoid about missing out on the best new stuff, we can help. Every other Thursday, the sounds good newsletter will bring you one must-hear show from CBC podcasts. And because we're true audio nerds, we'll also tell you about shows that we love that we didn't make. Go to cbc.ca/soundsgood to subscribe. You're listening to Wayco Black Art. This week, how one ER physician fought for better patient care. On December 8th came a big development. With Dr. Stockton and Fraser Health released statements that the matter was resolved to their mutual satisfaction. We went back to Dr. Stockton to get her reaction to the resolution. Now that the legal matter with Fraser Health has been resolved, how are you feeling? I feel good. I feel I feel a sense of closure. I'm happy that I can focus more of my energy and mental bandwidth on my advocacy work and my clinical practice. It feels good to be back full-time in the emergency seeing patients and spend more time with my family. What can you tell us about the terms of the resolution? I can't tell you anything about the terms of resolution. But I spoke out because health care providers cannot and should not be silenced for trying to advocate on behalf of their patients. I want to take you to the personal statement that you released. You said that your decision to pursue the case was guided by the conviction that health care workers deserve a safe and respectful workplace. How has your lawsuit, do you think, made things safer and more respectful for colleagues who are still there? I'm hopeful that more health care workers and patients will feel safe and empowered to speak up for systemic failures and unsafe conditions. And really, I hope that what happened to me will never happen to another doctor or any other health care worker for that matter. And obviously, I can't say with any great certainty that I've achieved that, but I think it's less likely that this is going to happen. So, what do you think patients have gained from your lawsuit and its resolution? I have been really, really humbled and surprised by the outpouring of support from patients across the country who have emailed me and messaged me and continued to do so thanking me for speaking up. I think it gave them a sense of validation for what they have been experiencing. And obviously, this is not isolated to Fraser Health or BC, I think patients across this country are suffering, and we need to collectively come together to demand better. How have the last few months been like for you and your family? You know, honestly, I think, you know, as a family, we're happy it's over, but I'm really genuinely excited to have had the chance to meet with the Minister of Health, along with health care leaders from BC and across the country and health policy experts to propose new legislation and initiatives that will help patients and BC and help retain healthcare workers to treat those patients. Which initiatives are you talking about? It would be a new independent body, a stably funded government agency that would get provincial funding as well as federal funding. This would be proactive oversight of health system performance and recommendations based on where they're seeing system failures. I'm wondering, you know, if colleagues asked you, was it worthwhile to take the health authority to court? What would you tell them? Yeah, it was, I mean, certainly it was not my first course of action. I tried for six months to resolve this internally, but yeah, I feel I feel proud of what I've accomplished. So it was worth it. Following the resolution of the court case, we asked Fraser Health for comment. A census statement that says it, quote, remains committed to making its workplaces as safe as possible for all staff, medical staff, patients and families, as well as quote, fostering a culture where staff and medical staff who identify safety concerns or advocate for system improvements are heard, supported, and engaged in a collaborative manner. We also put to Fraser Health the key points raised by Dr. Stockton in this program. A spokesperson pointed back to the statement from which I just read. To find out how unusual this case is, we went to one of Canada's top health care legal minds. Hi. My name is Elise Sunshine. I am a partner at the law firm Rosen Sunshine LLP in Toronto and I am a health and regulatory law lawyer. Elise Sunshine. Welcome to White Copeland. Thank you. Dr. Caitlin Stockton filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit after she tried to warrant patients about conditions in two hospitals where she worked. You're a lawyer. How unusual is it for a physician to file a lawsuit against a health authority? It is certainly not common for physicians to sue the hospitals where they work. Hospitals, of course, operate under provincial legislation and their own bylaws. And typically physicians are not employees. They hold what we call hospital privileges, pursuant to legislation. And if those privileges are interfered with, hospitals have to follow due process, but challenging those kinds of decisions typically requires going through internal appeal mechanisms before you can get to a court. There's other reasons, though, often the hospital may have a case against the physician relating to clinical care or interprofessional relationships. And the physician would be required to address that narrative while advancing any claim. And lawsuits are public. And then all of that stuff gets aired in the public sphere for the physician. How are hospitals, obviously, they hire lawyers on lawyers cost money? Where does that money come from? So good question, so it can come from and generally would come from government funding. That's how hospitals are funded. And one of the largest damage awards was awarded to a physician in Nova Scotia. And that case took years. And in 2021, there were documents revealed that showed that the province had spent over $1 million on the legal fees, on the disciplinary process, even before the lawsuit. And there was just a huge cost to taxpayers. What kind of precedents are there out there for physicians successfully suing health authorities? So there aren't a ton, but they are quite notable. And one of the earlier cases involves a doctor by the name of Dr. Rosenhack, who is a cardiologist who had his hospital privileges revoked and had to do with not fitting in with the staff. And ultimately, there was a huge judgment in his favor. The hospital was found to have acted in bad faith. The court emphasized that, you know, privileges are really essential to a physician's livelihood. The problem that happened here was this case went on for years and years. And so there's reputational impacts on the physician, patient relationship impacts. What would make you hesitate before taking up such a case? For me, there's a number of factors. And when a physician calls, I have to sit down with them and have a real reality check about the situation. First of all, these cases involve typically the need to prove bad faith. The cases are lengthy, they're very expensive. There is a lot of stress involved and there can be reputational damage. Fundamentally, if the physician wants to stay at the hospital, they want to work there. It's not a good plan to sue your employer and think you're going to have a nice life at that place of work. I gather your firm, which specializes in these kinds of disputes, has been seeing a trend, an increased trend. We have been and certainly peaks and valleys. I would say a lot of this started in my view post-COVID. There's just, you know, sort of this general climate of unhappiness for people. And that has impacted on the way hospitals function. There's short resources. People are difficult. That impacts on the healthcare providers who work there. Hospitals are struggling to provide services to meet the needs of the patients. That puts pressure on them, puts pressure on the doctors, and all of that typically culminates in sometimes people not behaving the way they always should, where things are not going as well as they should. And back to Dr. Caitlin Stockton. We don't know the details of her resolution of the matter as she calls it. And I gather that many of these resolutions come with a non-disclosure agreement. So what are the implications of NDAs on other physicians or other healthcare providers interested in speaking up about concerns? This case was quite unique as well because she was raising concerns about safety concerns. And so the fact the hospital resolved it quickly is a great sign as well. And I think it would be rare for a hospital to go through something like a lawsuit being brought against them and not look at what changes could or should be made at that institution. And I know Dr. Stockton has said that she wants doctors to speak up without fear of retaliation. And I think that is important. A lot of hospitals do have whistle blowing sort of protections. But it can be very scary for physicians and very lonely. And I would say if anyone is going down that path, I actually think the lawyer should be contacted early on to assist you through that process because the lawsuit should be the last resort for sure. What would it take for Ontario in particular in Canada to see more of these lawsuits taking on the health authority in the future given the fact that you don't think that there should be more? Well, I think in order to minimize lawsuits, I would say that there has to be better mechanisms for physicians to be able to communicate with hospital admin. There has to be more consensus building to allow for more mediative processes and discussions to be able to have in a safe way without it blowing up the physician's career or blowing up into a lawsuit. Well, those are certainly wise words to end our discussion on at least sunshine. Thank you so much for speaking with me. Thank you so much for having me. Mommy, can I help you cook? Please, dude. Yes, I need help. Dr. Stockton no longer works for ERs operated by Fraser Health. She's moved on to Vancouver Coastal Health. As she said, there are several reasons why she took the health authority to court that she thought, "Mommy's battle may be the most important reason of all." I want to be a good role model to my kids and to show them that even if it's scary and hard to stand up for what you believe in, what you get in return is a lifetime of self-worth and that's worth everything. Dr. Stockton's advocacy and her right to sue has resonated with colleagues across Canada. She's received support from several provincial medical associations and the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. That is for shining a light on the kinds of problems in the ER that are seen right across Canada and are not going away. That's our show. To comment, email us at [email protected]. Whitecoat Black Art was produced this week by Stephanie Dubois, senior producer Colleen Ross and me with help from Jennifer Warren, Samir Chabra, and Andrea Belmere. Our digital producers Ruby Buesa. I'm Brian Goldman and I'm proud to bring you stories from the Canadian side of the gurney. See you next week. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca/podcasts.