The Conservative Party of British Columbia unveiled its“patients first” healthcare policy which includes further partnerships with private clinics.
BC Conservative Leader John Rustad says that the province’s healthcare system is broken, and that throwing more money into the current state of affais will not result in lower waiting times and better patient outcomes.
“Our system is collapsing,” said Rustad. “Throwing more money at this problem won’t solve it. We need to start putting patients first through a new healthcare model.”
The healthcare platform contains five policy proposals that the BC Conservatives say will fix the province’s healthcare system and support frontline workers.
The first proposal would see the BC government partner with private healthcare facilities to deliver healthcare services through the single-payer system while expanding access to care for British Columbians.
The Conservatives compare the BC healthcare system with OECD countries that can spend less of their GDP on healthcare while delivering more acute care beds, more MRI scanners, and more nurses and doctors.
In a comment to True North, BC Conservative spokesperson Anthony Koch said that private facilities can operate alongside public facilities to increase capacity, encourage competition, and provide patients with more healthcare options.
The second proposal would reform BC’s funding model so that government funds are tied to the delivery of services, rather than block grants. They say this will help a Conservative government to cut red tape and allow the province to hire more healthcare professionals.
Thirdly, the BC Conservatives pledged to hire back the thousands of healthcare workers who were laid off for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine. As it stands, the province has refused to reinstate the dismissed workers.
To protect and support healthcare professionals, the BC Conservatives say they’ll implement a zero-tolerance policy by criminalizing illicit drug use in emergency rooms and hospitals.
They would also repeal the controversial Bill 36 which saw the province consolidate the number of health colleges from 15 to 6 and introduced government-appointed board members.
Finally, the BC Conservatives propose to make reporting on healthcare data and outcomes more transparent and seek to modernize the healthcare system through new technologies like telehealth and digital diagnostic tools.
When asked how the BC Conservatives plan on paying for new healthcare professionals and new technology, Koch said that they’ll improve efficiency in the system by reducing administrative overhead, collaborating with the private sector, and seeking grants and funds from the federal government.
Koch also said that the activity-based funding model will cut down on unnecessary expenditures and allow the government to allocate funds towards investing in technology and healthcare professionals.
In a comment to True North, BC United said that the BC Conservatives plagiarized much of their platform from their own.
“BC United was the first party to propose to publicly funding treatments at existing private clinics to immediately clear waitlists, hire back healthcare workers who were fired due to the vaccine mandate, ban illicit drug use in hospitals, create transparent measurable targets for our healthcare system performance, and repeal Bill 36,” reads BC United’s statement.
BC United candidate Dr. Claudine Storness-Bliss said that BC United is leading on the healthcare issue, despite her party’s unfavourable polling numbers.
“The Rustad Party copying our healthcare platform, which was created with the input of our strong team of physicians running for BC United in the upcoming election, simply shows that BC United is leading the charge to fix the NDP’s healthcare crisis,” said Storness-Bliss.
In response, the BC Conservatives say their healthcare platform is far more ambitious than BC United’s.
“Our proposal entails a whole of system transformation and is overwhelmingly more comprehensive,” said Koch.
“The only similarity is expanding and partnering with non-government facilities.”
True North reached out to the BC NDP for comment but did not receive a response.
