Healthcare issues in BC’s October election

VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s healthcare system has become a major issue ahead of the provincial election on Oct. 19 – like other provinces, it is grappling with a shortage of medical professionals, frequent short-term closures of emergency rooms and hundreds of thousands of residents who don’t have a family doctor.

Here are some of the health-related election promises from the three major parties, as reported by the Canadian Press:

B.C. New Democrats have promised to:

• Expand the conditions pharmacists can test and prescribe for to include more common illnesses such as strep throat, urinary tract infections and renal function.
• Getting more qualified medical professionals back to work by providing immediate provisional licences for doctors, nurses, and midwives trained in Canada, and offer the same licences in six weeks for professionals trained in some regions outside of the country.
• Reduce time-consuming paperwork for doctors.
• Add more physician assistants and expand the range of services they provide.

B.C. Conservatives have promised to:

• Offer care through both public and non-governmental facilities.
• Implement a “Wait Time Guarantee” that would arrange for care outside the province if services were not available in B.C. in a reasonable time.
• Expand programs to incentivize doctors and nurses to work in high-need communities.
• Improve reporting on administrative cost, savings and services and establish a mandate for transparent data.
• Compensate health workers who lost their jobs for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Repeal the Health Professions and Occupations Act, sweeping legislation that merges B.C.’s health regulatory colleges from 15 to 6 that has been criticized by groups, including doctors and nurses.

B.C. Greens have promised to:

• Establish a network of 93 community health centres across the province within the first year as part of what the party has called the “Dogwood model.” They say the model streamlines complicated referrals and ensures comprehensive care all in one place.
• Lease and administer workspace under the Dogwood model, allowing healthcare professionals to focus on patient care.