After working a long shift at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital, Dr. Susan Cooper says she often leaves the facility carrying the weight of moral distress. 

The kidney specialist says she thinks about the patients in the overcrowded emergency room, many waiting several hours — even days — on stretchers and recliner chairs, with little to no privacy.

"My heart is broken," says Cooper, who has worked at the Fraser Valley's largest hospital for almost 15 years. "These are not conditions you would exp…