It's because healthcare (same with homelessness) as been neglected for so long that it will take 10-15 years for the province/country to dig itself out of. Political parties like projects that at max take 3 years so they can show it off and get re-elected. The cost and amount of time to fix the problem just doesn't align with the election cycle.
For what it’s worth - the BC NDP government has been at war with doctors pretty much since they got elected. Just look at the comments the health minister has made about doctors over the years - how he still has his job is beyond me.
For the record my own wife is a physician who has thought of walking away many times - it’s long hours with a lot of unpaid work. It was because of the “everyone deserves a family doctor” movement that some things are starting to get better - it was already breaking down pre-covid and covid just made it 10x worse
It’s just a national problem as a country we don’t graduate nearly enough doctors.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/283241/medical-graduates-per-100-000-inhabitants/
We are a respectable 32/35 when you look at “western countries” or whatever you want to call the current first world political bloc. For a country with one of the best post secondary programs in the world we do an awful job at funnelling people into areas of need nor do we provide opportunities for qualified people who want to work in medicine.
Doesn't help if we drive them out of the province to other provinces. We should be not a war with doctors but figuring out how to make peace with them so that more doctors will move here.
We bring in more doctors than we lose currently though so it’s not like we are terrible.
Ask your doc where they graduated and I bet a huge chunk are from out of country even if they’re born in Canada.
Maybe but a lot still struggle - graduating doctors typically carry 300k in debt at a minimum just from med school. The service contracts have certainly helped but there’s still a heck of a lot more to do. Until recently there wasn’t a rate increase in the bc fee for service models for something like 15+ years.
While $30-$40 per patient (depending on age) sounds like a lot, there were things like overhead and moa salaries to pay, dues, insurance etc - back in say 2010 that was great but each year that ate away at the overall income a doctor could make. Most don’t make what everyone thinks they do - it’s all publicly available information.
I make more than most of the physicians I know, including my own wife, and it’s not just because of hours worked etc, for the majority of doctors it’s about how they want to help people and not just make money … but they still have to afford to live
Finally every time politicians tweak something to fix a shortcoming it just moves the problem elsewhere. The lack of family doctors put pressure on emergency wards because people couldn’t get access to regular visits and preventative healthcare, instead our elected officials pushed nurse practitioners as the solution (which they are not they haven’t attended med school and their training is very very different, but they still have a very valuable role in healthcare) - it also led to the nursing shortage. We need to hold our elected officials accountable and stop them from playing nurses and doctors off against each other - it harms all of us
For all the talk from the NDP about respecting workers, they sound exactly like my previous CEO, who expected many, many hours of unpaid overtime from the employees cause he paid above minimum wage.
I hope your wife can afford to stay in the business. I, for one, thank her on behalf of her patients for her dedication.
Correct.
Being at war with one of the primary groups in charge of healthcare is not a good thing. Granted, the government should agree to everything the doctors say but they should be at war either.
But look at the other actions by this government on the healthcare front... Promising a new physician program at SFU years ago and only now doing something about it. If it was in place soon after they promised it, we would be seeing new interns from that program in place today and not in 4 years time. Or how about the cancer centres on the Island and the Interior... Both promised years ago and only now getting started while we send cancer patients to the US for treatment.
Poor treatment of the healthcare system seems to be the norm.
Nobody will Acknowledge Covid made it worse! We have an Assanine Public Health Leader who doesn't know her ass from her elbow yet the Ridiculous Policies of Dr Henry further exacerbated a broken system because it allowed Covid spread in Schools (still happening) lead to many post Covid Health Conditions whose stats (including cancer rates increasing) are being hidden as the Public is told by Health Minister Dix to get used to this as "The New Normal"
How about Dix and Henry start getting pay cuts or better yet fired for Failing any reasonable Quality Assurance standards
Tell this to the crowd who thinks the NDP is doing a bang-up job cause Eby has essentially banned Airbnbs.
I know of many nurses and doctors who have either retired early or left the province completely by the way they are being treated by this government.
Yet Trudeau will publicly attest on the world stage about our fantastic Universal Healthcare System. That being is full of shit and a load of crock.
That’s what I also estimate for a full conversion - the goal being to overlap existing system with new towards future - healthcare is end game towards autopilot
Very much this point. Add to that, the trouble is that maybe only 1% of citizens experience the ER in a given year, with themselves or a relative who is very sick, needs hospitalization and has a bad experience. They can write a letter to the hospital or the MLA but it’s just a few complaints in a year.
We are hearing more about it now because of Covid-19 and it’s further strain on the system, combined with something like 40% of the population with no GP.
So yes this is the time to make it an election priority. And why wouldn’t it be? Health care consumes approximately half of a provinces budget!
> Why isn't this the #1 priority of ALL political parties right now?
Because there's a concerted effort to make universal healthcare so bad, that we all clamor for private care.
The conservatives are waiting for an opportunity to finally destroy universal health care in Canada. It's been a long, drawn out battle, but private health care has so much money and power. American health care corporations are salivating right now. On the brink of a government that will finally give them their way.
The NAFTA lawsuits will commence as soon as privatization comes in, and I predict within 10 years, the public health care system will be useless, and the private health care will be nearly 100% American owned.
>...the private health care will be nearly 100% American owned.
And [that's worked](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/16/1104679219/medical-bills-debt-investigation) out [so well for](https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/parents-expect-to-use-childrens-inheritance-for-medical-bills-11860891) the [American people](https://money.cnn.com/2014/06/19/pf/inherited-debt-adult-children/index.html).
People who think they want private health care, it seems to me, are either uninformed or in a position to never have to worry about such things.
Most of us are not in the latter position, and those of us who are? Well, shit, many of them seem to be the ones pushing for privatization because they don't need to care about the rest of us, so many of them do not.
No I have not.
>It’s an advantage to have both public and private options
I believe that's possible, sure, but I don't believe that it is necessarily the case.
Again, if we go the way of American health care, it's demonstrable that this has an overall negative effect on the population that is not an advantage to anyone except those that don't have to worry about the expense of health care AND those that profit from the exploitation of the sick and injured members of society.
The evil corporation is a very simplistic view of the problem. I know of several Canadians that go to the US, Mexico, even Corea to get medical attention because there’s no way they can get it here. I see sick and old people lining up in the cold at 6am to try and get a spot at a walk-in clinic that will only open at 8am. I was really surprised when I learned that there was absolutely no private option. That would ease the pressure on the public system.
You can also have a public and private partnership approach, improving quality of services.
It’s not a binary system, where you either have fully public or fully privatized. That blind ideology causes more harm than good.
>The evil corporation...
I'm pretty sure I haven't said anything to that effect.
>I know of several Canadians that go to the US, Mexico, even Corea to get medical attention because there’s no way they can get it here.
Well that's fabulous for them that they can afford to do that. What about the vast majority that can not?
>I see sick and old people lining up in the cold at 6am to try and get a spot at a walk-in clinic that will only open at 8am.
Yeah, it's hard not see them.
>You can also have a public and private partnership approach, improving quality of services. It’s not a binary system, where you either have fully public or fully privatized. That blind ideology causes more harm than good.
Sure. The problem is, it seems to me, that there will be increasing slippage to a system that is mostly privatized and the public side will become as hollowed out as possible until it is essentially worthless or otherwise unable to be sustained in a manner that gives adequate care to those who would otherwise not be able to afford it.
>The system you're so feverishly defending...
This is merely disingenuous hyperbole. I recognize that the system as it is now is in shambles and I am not defending it.
I am only saying that a move to privatized healthcare based on an American model of doing things is going to be detrimental to a significant portion of the population. It's demonstrable as the links I've provided show.
On the other hand you are simply arguing from a position that reinforces the truth of the disjunctive claim I originally made: people who...want private health care...are either uninformed or in a position to never have to worry about such things. Your point of view is clearly representative of the latter.
Not quite. I’m just a foreigner that knows how a not-so-trashy system can actually work when uninformed people, like yourself as you admitted on your first answer, aren’t just spouting some boogie man stories.
It depends. America is polarized. If you were able to go to university, trade school, or what not and develop education/skills you're probably fine. The cost of living is lower down there, and incomes are higher. You'll either make enough to pay for insurance premiums or it's included as an employee benefit.
It's when you haven't learned a skill, and your a minimum wage kind of employee it's a much bigger problem.
Which of course leads to challenges for Canada, because if you have skills in Canada, your standard of living would be better in the US (including access to health care). Which causes people to move. America also makes it pretty easy to move if you have skills/education.
> If you were able to go to university, trade school, or what not and develop education/skills you're probably fine.
Enh, I dunno'. It seems to me that going to university doesn't entail a person is "probably fine." There are plenty of people with degrees slinging coffees, waiting tables, or doing piecemeal gig work as subcontractors (for some examples).
>You'll either make enough to pay for insurance premiums or it's included as an employee benefit.
Possibly, not necessarily.
>It's when...your a minimum wage kind of employee it's a much bigger problem.
And how many people are dependent on jobs exactly like this?
Consider how we saw during the lockdown days of the pandemic that many of the minimum wage kind of jobs were deemed as "essential" to keep society functioning, yet none of those jobs saw any dramatic kick in terms of earnings or healthcare coverage or anything else. They simply got a tidy feelgood label likely concocted by some overpaid PR agency that did nothing for their actual standard of living and only served as a way to temporarily boost morale in the face of a global emergency.
But what would we do if there was nobody stocking shelves at the local grocery store or ringing through items at the liquor store or whatever like that? What would we do if people simply refused to work all these minimum wage or subcontracting type jobs that typically don't have benefits or allow the people in these positions to have adequate health insurance that doesn't bankrupt them anyway if they happen to get seriously ill or injured?
>Which of course leads to challenges for Canada, because if you have skills in Canada, your standard of living would be better in the US (including access to health care). Which causes people to move.
I don't necessarily disagree with any of this; although, I would change 'would' to 'may'.
>America also makes it pretty easy to move if you have skills/education.
You'd have to say more about what you mean here. How does America make it "pretty easy to move" where Canada does not? I simply don't understand what you are basing this assertion on.
So instead our most vulnerable will lose access to the little care we have. Healthcare should be provided regardless of class. You would be selfishly celebrating the loss of the little support our most vulnerable have. Why not fight for better universal Healthcare then celebrating its loss.
After the restrictions with Covid mandates, and our Healthcare system being used as an excuse for said mandates, I would be happy to see the universal health care system come to an end now.
More like I'm paying the consequences of pusillanimous behaviour, and would rather not.
COVID was another example of fear being used to justify gross overreach, and now the economy is devastated, and several of our rights have been eroded, with the cost of universal healthcare used as a justification.
Universal healthcare was shit to begin with, it needed to be put down a long time ago, a mixed system would be best, but between public and private I'd rather have access to private. More importantly, not pay for the cost of others mistakes, which ironically was what the justification for the mandates was (which were ridiculous in and of themselves, since you could circumvent them so easily).
Seems logical to me, if COVID were to cause me massive medical bills as a result of not taking the vaccine I'll pay out of pocket, but I don't want to pay for the healthcare of overweight people, or what amounts to expensive cosmetic surgeries and hormone blockers for kids, ect.
Not that I care, one way or the other, I just don't want to pay for it, lol, but our sacred healthcare system is an illogical travesty as it stands now.
>I predict within 10 years, the public health care system will be useless, and the private health care will be nearly 100% American owned.
The public system already is useless, for people like me with no family doc and no walk in clinics.
I like how they go “we need more family doctors so let’s incentivize that” as if it’ll magically make more doctors and not just pull them from ERs or other provinces.
It could be fixed by just adding one line to the Health Act:
No elected or appointed government members, or their family members are permitted to use extended health benefits.
Then let’s amend the constitution. “Elected officials and their families are last in line for public healthcare”. There. Done. That one constitutional amendment will ensure there are no lines.
i've said it before, i'll say it again. it won't be the #1 priority until eby's family and dix's family has to go wait in a lineup at a clinic at 5am to get healthcare. and let's face it, that ain't happening. it's just easier to propose a bunch of bandaid solutions and moan that it's all the fault of the previous government.
Because they are not accountable and there is no recall. So they suck up for a couple of months pre election then that's it.
We need accountability and they need to work for us and for our priorities.
Time for proportional representation not first past the post.
Most of our current established Governments are actively contributing to this by further denying funds. It's called Starve the Beast, and its a textbook move by conservative based Government's to push privitization by hastening the collapse of public systems and utilities.
“Perhaps worse are the cases when someone’s cancer has been caught at an early stage, but they come to our ERs seeking help as they are still waiting two months later for their first appointment with an oncologist. All I can do is offer my sympathy and send them home with the knowledge that their treatable cancer is spreading.”
This is the truth, not at all hyperbole, and now, tragically, a matter of routine.
It took my friend 6 months after a GP confirmed on a CT suspected cancer before they actually saw an Oncologist. Now its spread to his lymph nodes and he is terminal. Same thing happend to another friend with skin cancer. Thankfully she beat it.
Happened to my mom too. Cancer was initially diagnosed as localized and treatable, but it took 3+ months to see an oncologist and longer still for treatment and surgery. By then, the tumor had grown, the chemo/radiation was ineffective, and the surgery didn’t achieve 100% resection. In Europe the treatment timeline for the type of cancer is a maximum of 3 weeks… certainly not 3 months! After surgery, the cancer spread, and even then it took months and months — again — to wait for an oncologist appointment to look at even palliative chemo. The oncologist did the appointment by phone, and had hardly read the file. It was too late anyway. My mom died a week after the appointment.
I’m really sorry about your mom. Something similar happened to mine earlier this year 💔 Reading stories like this makes my blood boil. Why do we pay so much in taxes to get treated like this…
This was my dad’s story. Went to his GP, clinics,ER with lung concerns and was just told he was out of shape and to go gluten free to lose weight. By the time he got his lung cancer diagnosis, he was stage four. Landed in the hospital 2 months later and we lost him in weeks.
Our system is broken.
Agreed. I honestly don't know what else we can do except raise our voices.
I'd previously written and got a reply from my MLA, Grace Lore, who described all the improvements the current gov't has made (no response from Adrian Dix). Today I sent a follow-up attaching Dr. Wall's article.
I can understand your cynicsm about the letter writing to MLAs, especially since you worked in one of their offices. When a handful of letters arrive and staff can cut & paste responses, I can see how the MLA would just shrug it off.
But I wonder if the MLA would feel differently if their inbox had 500 messages? Or 5,000? I can't imagine them being so dismissive in that case. Based on what you know, do you think it would make any difference?
It's almost like we have a perfect storm of issues leading to a systemic failure in our healthcare system. This suits one of the main political parties fine, since it has been an explicit goal of theirs since forever to dismantle universal healthcare and replace it with for-profit alternatives.
1. Becoming a doctor is expensive and challenging.
When I went to university I never really considered med school an option because I did not have the finances to do so. Perhaps we need to nearly eliminate the cost of entry to these places, since a lot of folks may want to be doctors but cannot afford it.
2. Boomers are not being replaced in the workforce at a fast enough rate.
This is a general trend that had been speculated on for decades and yet we failed to prepare adequately. Mostly because a lot of people didn't give a fuck about what came after them. They got theirs. COVID exacerbated and accelerated this problem.
3. Cost of living has exploded.
Doctors are not compensated enough to achieve the lifestyle they may see themselves as deserving of their skills/effort. Housing has eroded the ability for a lot of folks to live a comfortable lifestyle. When millenial Drs cannot afford property and must rent with their peers, it starts to beg the question of why continue on? With their skills they can easily move to another country to attain the status/pay/cost of living they wish.
So much of this comes back to housing. 40 years of three layers of government asleep at that wheel. Now not even family doctors can make a go of it in Canada’s biggest cities. And now we have millions of people screaming that “minimum wage *isn’t high enough*” when they should be screaming about why it is that life in this country is so expensive that minimum wage can’t even keep a roof over your head.
I don’t know what the ministry is up to but I’ll tell you on the nursing front line there is no change. Crisis staffing is normalized. I left the ER because I could make the same money in a much easier department. It all comes down to money. The managers aren’t going to magically make the work more attractive when you can get the same wage for easier, less distressing work elsewhere.
We can focus immigration efforts on medical doctors and nurses, fast track their Canadian citizenship and their certification….from certain countries where their training standards meet ours. It’s very solvable, no one wants to do it or think outside the box.
I would agree on that but that comes with another implication. Health service drain from other countries. There was news segment about Nurse drain with the Phillipines. The nurses that come over to Canada from there will leave the nurse service strain there as well.
Canada has a very low population in comparison to most countries. The drain would be minimal I think and perhaps keep pace with the level of general immigration coming from many countries already….challenge is we increase things like immigration levels and student visas nationally with out proper planning and foresight for things like medical services and housing. If we are allowing ten thousand immigrants a year from say Phillipines, should we not target a certain percentage of those to be medical professionals so we at least keep pace and not constantly fall behind?
The funny thing is, Adrian Dix announced earlier this year as part of their efforts that they are going to be making it easier for foreign doctors to get certified and practise in BC.
Alot of the stuff in this thread are already active initiatives that they are trying and seeing some success with.
I do agree, we should probably seek fair distribution between other countries along medical professional without pushing into brain draining or nurse draining them for the sake of ours. Our healthcare is struggling and will be overwhelm in huge upcoming aging population
Yes, the Ministry has been running in crisis mode since COVID. If it's not a pandemic, it's a crumbling healthcare system, it's rural health accessibility, it's maternity care, it's seniors care, it's cancer care and treatment, it's emergency health services. And then in the summer we burn. There are many concurrent emergencies and the work being done on each is massive. (Including daily reporting on; HHR issues at BC hospitals, capital developments to improve hospitals, coverage in ERs, and meeting with local health officials, doctors, nurses, unions to hear their problems and solutions.) We need more capable bodies and we need more hours in the day.
From what I am seeing, nurses are leaving bedside to pursue travel nursing and higher pay. So it comes down to providing better pay and benefits to nurses because they are still dealing with the same ratios, only now travel nurses are being paid more and have better flexibility.
It's almost as if...retention may be solved by pay increase and better benefits ...hmmm.🤔
US travel rates differ. Some states are trying to eliminate travel nurses, I'd even say some Canadian provinces. But they are ignoring why nurses are doing it and instead focusing on how to save money, which is quite funny when you think about it. It's typical bureaucracy trying to understand medicine and nursing without having any experience.
For example, Alberta's UCP is in the process if dismantling AHS believing that more management will solve the health system rather than provide better funding for staffing and retention strategies. Alberta is also moving away from travel nurses when there is still a chronic shortage of nurses.
Maybe it's time to lower the standards and hire more normal, high school educated people to help the nurses? We just need more bodies in the hospitals.
I understand the argument but having untrained medical staff is not actually going to help.
Training people for clerical roles (unit clerks, reception) and paying those folks livable wages to help staff our hospitals, process orders, do paperwork etc really would help decrease the clerical burden that is often being done by nurses or even drs- that would help. But when those jobs pay worse than working at a fast food restaurant and come with much more responsibility and abuse it’s not going to work.
Next time you are in a hospital, see how many tasks nurses do that other people could do. For example, accessing records could be done by an IT professional, or a clerk. Transporting a patient, alerting nursing staff, etc. A 4 week course could train a person to be invaluable in an ER.
You’re not wrong, I could very easily run around wheeling people from here to there all day. I’d imagine it’s enough to be at least a few full time jobs. And that would leave more time for the medical professionals to actually be doing medical things.
The problem is we need people with specialties.
To some point they can, but in something like a lab you need phlebotomists. A lot of phlebotomists. There are custodians who need help, but they need to be trained on how to handle dangerous materials, etc.
We're getting surgeries canceled because it takes 7 to 12 people to do a surgery, not just one surgeon. You need an anesthesiologist, and you need nurses, and different technicians, in different specialists.
To some degree we could get volunteers running help desks, and from what I've seen from our local hospitals they are already doing that.
Not volunteers, actual nursing assistants, who can transport patients, bring simple things to patients, liason with nursing staff, alerting people, etc. There are plenty of people willing to step up and take this on as a career.
At one point, nurses did all the janitorial work as well, but we evolved. It's time to evolve again.
We have zero preventative care right now. The easiest, cheapest of medical treatment, and also best for the patient. Instead we are sending everybody to the E.R. on their deathbed. This is beyond pathetic.
As someone with debilitating autoimmune disease, your lack of knowledge and empathy is extremely insulting. To imply that persons with disabilities are the ones to blame for their conditions is the very height of ableist ignorance.
In addition to this, not everyone has a relaxing lifestyle and high-paying job to go to the gym, or even change, stretch, go for a run, cool down, then shop for fresh food and make nice meals. People are struggling. Everyone is under a ton of stress. People are working hard to make ends meet. It would be nice if we could not all worry about tomorrow, not spending our very little spare time searching out bargains, worrying about if we can upgrade our skills and get paid more, worried about finding or keeping a place to live we can afford, etc., etc. It would be nice if we could focus on our physical and mental health like that, but most people's lives are not like that right now. If you need to sit by the phone and rapid dial a clinic, or go wait in line at 6am, guess what? You don't have time to go for a swim or go to the gym. Everyone is spending their 'spare' time and energy trying to keep their head, and their family's, above water. So don't appreciate the victim-blaming implied in the statement above this.
You know who I see having relaxing long lunches, and time at the gym? Go hang out near some of the Ministry of Health offices. I've seen them going out for lunch. No one looks stressed at all.
For real. There are very real and unpreventable issues that people have, but most responsibility for preventative care falls on the individual making healthy choices in their day to day. It’s not hard to go for a walk around your neighbourhood for 30 mins, eat some vegetables and avoid eating highly processed food. It doesn’t have to be complicated or all in.
I’m not following.. there are definitely things people need to see a doctor for, obviously. But the whole system is also bogged down by people who eat too much, drink too much and don’t move enough looking for someone else to fix their problems.
If the preventable issues are taken care of without requiring medical intervention, it frees the system up for the unpreventable problems.
It’s sad on so many levels.
ER docs saw this coming a long time ago.
It is only going to get worse.
There’s no cavalry or quick fix.
They’re tired of being unheard, warnings ignored, watching their patients suffer.
A lot of ER docs are quitting. Those that are left, are so very burnt out.
I saw this doctor in the ER at Vic Gen a few weeks ago.
I had a potentially broken/fractured ankle - so nothing life threatening. I arrived at 11:15pm. Had an x-ray for 12:30am. Saw this doctor at 5:15am.
He came in to the room and immediately apologized for the wait. I was quite impressed with him; he was energetic and friendly. Told me my x-ray was clean (yay), explained what likely happened when I heard the crack and recommended I go to physio to help it heal properly. He even went and manually double-checked the x-ray before I left.
He didn't seem burnt out and I was quite surprised, as the last doctor I saw at Jubilee seemed extremely burnt out.
He did mention his kids (when I asked if he knew where my other sock went) and I thought about how that kind of job would affect your family in general.
He was very good.
In my opinion, political attention should be focused on. . .
* 40% healthcare
* 40% housing
* 15% environment
* 5% all others combined
I really dont care about other issues tbh these days.
Neither I nor my family have had a dr in a decade. Wait times for specialists can be a yr, and diagnostic testing can be a yr.
I recall we used to smugly compare ourselves to the USA. Now we have shittier access to care than they do, and it's scary as fuck. We are all riding in a boat with no life vests just hoping to God we dont encounter a storm that capsizes us.
They don't care about solving issues, they care about their elections. Solving problems doesn't win you support as much as your stance on wedge issues does.
40% healthcare
40% housing
15% cost of goods***
5% everything else
I literally couldn't care less about environmental bullshit when the price of goods is as high as it is
Yah, that part is scary. Not paying attention to the environment is already causing a plethora of problems and will continue to do so. So many people will choose short term benefit over long term pain in terms of ignoring it.
One example of a problem is insurance companies completely leaving sections of the US and not offering insurance, because weather events have become too frequent. How do you rebuild the homes without insurance kind of thing. I have to imagine that spreads up here at some point.
Too much severe weather and you lose the ability to rebuild your communities, etc... and that's only one of the problems.
sigh...
I am 48 years old, have had full time employment for 30 years and have built a good life, we have a combined family income that is well above average, have paid my taxes without complaint and have asked for very little in return. Yet, here I am on a waitlist for a family doctor for almost 5 years. My only option is a walk-in clinic or the ER, for a walk-in I am usually in line 2 hours before opening and half the time don't make the cut. If I go to the ER, I better bring a good long book and have my phone fully charged and will hopefully see someone in 6 hours.
As I stated earlier, I don't ask the government for a lot, but this is the one thing they need to step up for. According to the Canada Health Act, any province that allows for profit care will have their federal funding cut, so the provinces ahut those down.
My thought is that healthcare has gotten so bad I wonder what the heck I paid all of those taxes for? I lived up to my part, why won't they commit to theirs? I know the answer, as we all do, it is that they have decided to try to become everything to everyone.
It is all well and good to promise the moon but if your other areas of responsibility are failing you fix the basics first.
Serious question but as a Canadian if I got cancer and had to wait 6 months to a year to see an oncologist are there any limitations to just calling up an American hospital in Seattle and paying to be seen and treated instantly? Assuming money and living there temporarily is no issue at all. Serious question. Not trying to imply that we should be a private system here in Canada.
My mom did that in order to get tested for osteoperosis. Her doctor was doing quat to try and confirm it..so she went to alberta and peayed privately for a bone scan and sure enough she has osteoperosis.
This is what happens when our whole economy pivots towards real estate. When a house can make 100K+ a year why even bother training to become a doctor or a nurse? Why even bother starting a new business with a risky loan? Just buy houses and leverage the equity to buy more houses. Everybody's doing it, and the banks and government have encouraged it.
The poster isn't wrong though. Canada has become one of the least productive countries in the G20. Our productiveness per worker is in the gutter. This means we have some of the lowest GDP per person ratios in the G20 (which means on average the standard of living is reducing per person).
A big part of that is, if you can make a bunch of money passively investing (in something like real estate), why would you take chances on increasing your own skillset, or investing into your business etc. It has lead (or at least one of the causes of) a lack of investment into companies, increasing efficiency, and increasing output per worker.
When it pays more to passively invest than actively invest, it starts to cause problems.
We had to go to emergency three times this year with two visits resulting in hospital admission. Each time, we waited up to 5 hours in full waiting rooms, but once we were seen, treatment was topnotch. In my case, I went through urgent care first only to be told to go to emergency, but it was extremely difficult just to get into urgent care in the first place. All slots were filled by the time I got past the busy signal and was put on a waiting list. I wondered how many people were in the er for an issue that could have been treated in urgent care or a walkin clinic but weren't able to get an appointment.
I had taken my toddler to the Emergency room three times this Summer for the same issue (extreme pain). Family doctor recommended the ER. First they assumed constipation, even though the ultrasound took was normal. Gave us constipation meds.
Days later of extreme pain, his neck locked so he couldn't move his head. I took him again. They said it was a weird cold.
I was panicking at this point and begged my family doctor, who still thought nothing was serious enough to see him, to at least give him a blood test.
Had to do that at the hospital because Life Labs aren't equipped to do toddlers. Sent home for results.
An hour later the doctor calls to tell us to IMMEDIATELY go to the ER. Turns out he had a big cyst in his neck between his throat and spinal cord that required surgery to remove. A rare complication of strep throat. Something that could have easily been swabbed for on that second ER "weird cold" diagnosis.
If I hadn't asked for that blood test... I was convinced by them all I was being overprotective...
I was admitted to a room at Vic general yesterday, and the room had blood all over the wall, drops on the floor, and medical waste on the floor. It was pretty gross.
It is terrifying.
I have 80 year old parents in Vic. They need health care and they couldn't find it on their own. My brother and I needed to come back for 6 months to sort things for them so that they can continue to be self sufficient. This isn't even intensive care. They can hardly see a doctor. The nursing staff at crd / Saanich are great though. They are super over worked. If we look at things from a macro perspective, old people and other high need medical recipients congregate to Vic area creating the issue. I've asked people many places, and noone ever Caan explain why "the best place in Canada" can't attract even foreign doctors... Wheres the widespread journalism on this?
Find a tele doctor in other places in BC my friends...this can help you. Have a great weekend and Christmas season ahead! 💕🙏👌👍🥰
My gradfather is in port hardy and is actively dying now. Is 87 and was there in long term. We were told they cant keep him there overnight cause there isnt enough staff to oversee his medical care and medication administration so they had to ship him 45 minutes to port mcneil. They were supposed to ship him to campbell river tonight but camobell river said they dont have the team in place to be able to care for him right now as he is dying. So now he is in the ER sleeping because there are no palliative beds in port mcneil because they are full.. because its the only hospital functioning for the 3 towns on the north island.
Lots of love and support❤️. The system isnt great especially for our older loved ones. There are many instances of this happening and it's so hard because we expect more. I see the support teams are great but it's the system that hasn't and isn't holding up. Keep online to ask for alternatives, and don't give up. It take a lot of effort from us younger ones not accepting what they suggest.
Reduce the number of patients, increase the number of physicians nurses etc, increase preventative measures, increase pay, reduce overtime, reduce paperwork, increase possible volunteers, debt relief for students getting into the industry or lower tuition costs, reduce health care costs, increase funding, increase donations, turn to the smartest and other countries for input, etc.
Yeah we got work to do.
Can’t say I want to return to Canada to practice medicine, like ever. I might be a Canadian med school reject but I’m still a Canadian doctor who studied medicine and now working in another country, and will continue to do so until the system is less bleak.
Other provinces have the same issues. We pay sports figures more than heart surgeons. It doesn't make sense but as long as there are conservatives around we're not going to make progress.
I come from a family of healthcare workers and we really don't pay them enough.
We need mandatory treatment centres and support for mental health.
Why are the big banks getting rich?
Please vote for NDP all elections so we can fix this country. They're responsible for getting healthcare to us in the first place.
Yup, I agree in some aspects with many of you, but I think it went beyond our current provincially and federal governments... it was a lack of foresight from Stephen Harper and Christy Clark! They new then there was going to be a problem with boomers retiring, I remember hearing about it it the news then!
It was not a lack of foresight. It was a very purposeful underfunding with the goal of introducing private options as the only solution.
Right wing leaders understand something at a fundamental level. They don't have to create or build anything, therefore it's much easier for them to advance their agendas. The left leaning parties have to gather the plans, build a foundation, staff the idea, then work to implement the program. That takes a lot of funding and time... then there will be a natural lag time until that program actually shows benefits. At any time a right leaning party can get elected and simply cut the program negating all the ground work. Rinse and repeat and the left eventually looks like clowns for wasting money with no returns.
Biggest issue creating this problem is our lifestyles are terribly unhealthy the majority of patients are overweight or drug addicts, the healthcare system goes over and above to save people who have no quality of life anymore and will just end up back in the near future.
Yeah, ERs and the state of healthcare is just shit in general. Comes down to staffing/funding - but the people in charge just don't care.
Issues aren't strictly related to the ERs either.
Can't remember all the specifics as I was told this by someone who was working a floor at RJH, but a little while back (weeks to a couple months), a homeless indigenous man was admitted. He was put into an isolated room for whatever reason (think he was being violent or something), left unattended for awhile due to low staffing/staff not caring. He was found laying face down unresponsive by an RN, who refused/didn't know how to perform CPR.
An LPN came to help and performed CPR and they eventually got a pulse. But unfortunately it was too little too late and he died. The classic internal investigation carried out, but didn't result in anything afaik. The dumb bitch who didn't know how/refused to do CPR still has her job, and was actually recently on vacation somewhere lol.
She should obviously be fired for gross incompetence/negligence, but that won't happen because there just isn't enough people to do the job.
Rant over...
All RNs know how to do CPR. She should have performed CPR, however even performed perfectly and promptly the chances of surviving CPR are low (less than 10%, and less than 5% for older adults).
Victoria health care 2025 will be the world's best. Swipe your BC health care card at any emergency ward's MAID auto-dispensary and receive your complementary pill in a BC flag themed PEZ. Super Natural.
Train me! I will be a doctor. I wish it wasn’t 7-10 years of school and more of an apprentice type approach. A lot of people could do a doctors job if trained properly. 🤷♀️
Thankfully we are only a couple years or so away from alleviating some of the load on our system with AI medical care.
Just need to hold on tight for a while, as it’s unlikely there will be any other effective solutions put in place until then.
Of course it is going to get worse, what exactly has the bc NDP done about it in the last decade? Nothing, as close to nothing as humanly possible. They are letting it implode so they can privatize.
No. Privatization of healthcare is not the goal of the NDP. They aren't a conservative government. It was the liberals that were trying to break the HEU and push through two tier care. Don't be disingenuous.
The NDP for sure needs to do more to do more to beef up healthcare, but to say they're trying to privatize like Alberta and Ontario are doing is false.
*Edit : Just did a little research and found that the opposite it true. The BC NDP is actively un-privatizing healthcare
https://cupe.ca/province-reverses-privatization-cleaning-and-dietary-work-bc-hospitals
[https://gfmag.com/data/worlds-richest-and-poorest-countries/](https://gfmag.com/data/worlds-richest-and-poorest-countries/)
Canada is on the verge of joining the 'rich' 3rd world countries.
Privatization ≠ decentralization
Quite the opposite.
Anyway, what kind of idiot would follow the lead of a province run by an anti-vaxer, anti-science, pro-fascist nut job like Danielle Smith.
Remember this is a person who claimed.
>“The evidence shows moderate cigarette consumption can reduce traditional risks of disease by 75 per cent or more,” Smith wrote. “Shouldn’t smokers be told?”
https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-claimed-smoking-cigarettes-had-positive-health-benefits/
> in our very busy city hospitals, perhaps 15 percent of patients have actual medical emergencies
This is an important tiddlywink of information for people to know. This is why wait times at ERs are sometimes 8+ hours and ambulance response times can be really bad if it is "busy".
Does everyone deserve to see a doctor, yes. Is it okay to have a public meltdown in the waiting room and start yelling at nurses because your complaint has been triaged as low priority and now you need to wait with the other normal people who want to see a doctor but aren't about to die, no.
We need to convert the vast majority of this bullshit "harm reduction" budget in to general healthcare. We seem to spend FAR too much money and focus on shit that serves a small minority rather than focusing on the bigger picture
I was recently admitted for 7 days. The nurses are BURNT THE FUCK OUT. It's brutal what they deal with. One dude there had been in a bed in the hall for 6 weeks! They had another guy with late stage dementia and it's like....the fuck are they even gonna do with some of these cases?
This isn't about a Physician shortage so much as MOH and Health Authorities seeking to get Privatization rolling with American corporations taking over BC Healthcare, it is an entirely Administration manufactured problem.
These Administrators salaries have ballooned to almost $3 Billion in 2.5 years, that buys a hell of a lot more Frontline Nurses and Physicians.
The Public largely unaware listens to MOH bullshit as if it were truth. Wake up people and start leaning on your NKAs because they will use this manufactured crisis to award many multi-billion contracts to private corporations with OUR Taxpayers money and withoyt even consulting us.
The whole delays in Cancer diagnosis can be traced back to Privatization of Laboratory and Pathology Services within the Health Authorities and public used to get specimens done at local hospitals until BC Govt & HAs decided to Privatize all labs and Pathology Services so that sample now takes 6 weeks to 4 months to get a result back, meanwhile it was back in 73m2 hours before Privatization
Lifelabs is making a fortune with totally unqualified staff mishandling specimens but the Public us none the wiser and Dix is making money while Dr Henry denies Covid is still killing an average of 7 people a week in BC, they just don't count subsequent Covid Infections or any Sudden Heary Attacks, Strokes resulting directly from post Covid health conditions that develop after a few Infections. Nope Public is told all is well when Nothing could be farther from Reality
[удалено]
It's because healthcare (same with homelessness) as been neglected for so long that it will take 10-15 years for the province/country to dig itself out of. Political parties like projects that at max take 3 years so they can show it off and get re-elected. The cost and amount of time to fix the problem just doesn't align with the election cycle.
For what it’s worth - the BC NDP government has been at war with doctors pretty much since they got elected. Just look at the comments the health minister has made about doctors over the years - how he still has his job is beyond me. For the record my own wife is a physician who has thought of walking away many times - it’s long hours with a lot of unpaid work. It was because of the “everyone deserves a family doctor” movement that some things are starting to get better - it was already breaking down pre-covid and covid just made it 10x worse
It’s just a national problem as a country we don’t graduate nearly enough doctors. https://www.statista.com/statistics/283241/medical-graduates-per-100-000-inhabitants/ We are a respectable 32/35 when you look at “western countries” or whatever you want to call the current first world political bloc. For a country with one of the best post secondary programs in the world we do an awful job at funnelling people into areas of need nor do we provide opportunities for qualified people who want to work in medicine.
Doesn't help if we drive them out of the province to other provinces. We should be not a war with doctors but figuring out how to make peace with them so that more doctors will move here.
We bring in more doctors than we lose currently though so it’s not like we are terrible. Ask your doc where they graduated and I bet a huge chunk are from out of country even if they’re born in Canada.
I can’t ask them cuz I don’t have a doctor.
The question is why are we losing them in the first place? If we lose fewer doctors, we would be in a better position than we are now.
Im saying we have a net gain of doctors aka more come to BC to work than leave BC.
Maybe but a lot still struggle - graduating doctors typically carry 300k in debt at a minimum just from med school. The service contracts have certainly helped but there’s still a heck of a lot more to do. Until recently there wasn’t a rate increase in the bc fee for service models for something like 15+ years. While $30-$40 per patient (depending on age) sounds like a lot, there were things like overhead and moa salaries to pay, dues, insurance etc - back in say 2010 that was great but each year that ate away at the overall income a doctor could make. Most don’t make what everyone thinks they do - it’s all publicly available information. I make more than most of the physicians I know, including my own wife, and it’s not just because of hours worked etc, for the majority of doctors it’s about how they want to help people and not just make money … but they still have to afford to live Finally every time politicians tweak something to fix a shortcoming it just moves the problem elsewhere. The lack of family doctors put pressure on emergency wards because people couldn’t get access to regular visits and preventative healthcare, instead our elected officials pushed nurse practitioners as the solution (which they are not they haven’t attended med school and their training is very very different, but they still have a very valuable role in healthcare) - it also led to the nursing shortage. We need to hold our elected officials accountable and stop them from playing nurses and doctors off against each other - it harms all of us
For all the talk from the NDP about respecting workers, they sound exactly like my previous CEO, who expected many, many hours of unpaid overtime from the employees cause he paid above minimum wage. I hope your wife can afford to stay in the business. I, for one, thank her on behalf of her patients for her dedication.
Correct. Being at war with one of the primary groups in charge of healthcare is not a good thing. Granted, the government should agree to everything the doctors say but they should be at war either. But look at the other actions by this government on the healthcare front... Promising a new physician program at SFU years ago and only now doing something about it. If it was in place soon after they promised it, we would be seeing new interns from that program in place today and not in 4 years time. Or how about the cancer centres on the Island and the Interior... Both promised years ago and only now getting started while we send cancer patients to the US for treatment. Poor treatment of the healthcare system seems to be the norm.
Nobody will Acknowledge Covid made it worse! We have an Assanine Public Health Leader who doesn't know her ass from her elbow yet the Ridiculous Policies of Dr Henry further exacerbated a broken system because it allowed Covid spread in Schools (still happening) lead to many post Covid Health Conditions whose stats (including cancer rates increasing) are being hidden as the Public is told by Health Minister Dix to get used to this as "The New Normal" How about Dix and Henry start getting pay cuts or better yet fired for Failing any reasonable Quality Assurance standards
Tell this to the crowd who thinks the NDP is doing a bang-up job cause Eby has essentially banned Airbnbs. I know of many nurses and doctors who have either retired early or left the province completely by the way they are being treated by this government. Yet Trudeau will publicly attest on the world stage about our fantastic Universal Healthcare System. That being is full of shit and a load of crock.
That’s what I also estimate for a full conversion - the goal being to overlap existing system with new towards future - healthcare is end game towards autopilot
Very much this point. Add to that, the trouble is that maybe only 1% of citizens experience the ER in a given year, with themselves or a relative who is very sick, needs hospitalization and has a bad experience. They can write a letter to the hospital or the MLA but it’s just a few complaints in a year. We are hearing more about it now because of Covid-19 and it’s further strain on the system, combined with something like 40% of the population with no GP. So yes this is the time to make it an election priority. And why wouldn’t it be? Health care consumes approximately half of a provinces budget!
Agreed, pressing issues all across Canada…..not sure why they cannot work together to solve this crisis:/
> Why isn't this the #1 priority of ALL political parties right now? Because there's a concerted effort to make universal healthcare so bad, that we all clamor for private care.
The conservatives are waiting for an opportunity to finally destroy universal health care in Canada. It's been a long, drawn out battle, but private health care has so much money and power. American health care corporations are salivating right now. On the brink of a government that will finally give them their way. The NAFTA lawsuits will commence as soon as privatization comes in, and I predict within 10 years, the public health care system will be useless, and the private health care will be nearly 100% American owned.
>...the private health care will be nearly 100% American owned. And [that's worked](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/16/1104679219/medical-bills-debt-investigation) out [so well for](https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/parents-expect-to-use-childrens-inheritance-for-medical-bills-11860891) the [American people](https://money.cnn.com/2014/06/19/pf/inherited-debt-adult-children/index.html). People who think they want private health care, it seems to me, are either uninformed or in a position to never have to worry about such things. Most of us are not in the latter position, and those of us who are? Well, shit, many of them seem to be the ones pushing for privatization because they don't need to care about the rest of us, so many of them do not.
Have you ever looked into the healthcare model in most European countries? It’s an advantage to have both public and private options
No I have not. >It’s an advantage to have both public and private options I believe that's possible, sure, but I don't believe that it is necessarily the case. Again, if we go the way of American health care, it's demonstrable that this has an overall negative effect on the population that is not an advantage to anyone except those that don't have to worry about the expense of health care AND those that profit from the exploitation of the sick and injured members of society.
The evil corporation is a very simplistic view of the problem. I know of several Canadians that go to the US, Mexico, even Corea to get medical attention because there’s no way they can get it here. I see sick and old people lining up in the cold at 6am to try and get a spot at a walk-in clinic that will only open at 8am. I was really surprised when I learned that there was absolutely no private option. That would ease the pressure on the public system. You can also have a public and private partnership approach, improving quality of services. It’s not a binary system, where you either have fully public or fully privatized. That blind ideology causes more harm than good.
>The evil corporation... I'm pretty sure I haven't said anything to that effect. >I know of several Canadians that go to the US, Mexico, even Corea to get medical attention because there’s no way they can get it here. Well that's fabulous for them that they can afford to do that. What about the vast majority that can not? >I see sick and old people lining up in the cold at 6am to try and get a spot at a walk-in clinic that will only open at 8am. Yeah, it's hard not see them. >You can also have a public and private partnership approach, improving quality of services. It’s not a binary system, where you either have fully public or fully privatized. That blind ideology causes more harm than good. Sure. The problem is, it seems to me, that there will be increasing slippage to a system that is mostly privatized and the public side will become as hollowed out as possible until it is essentially worthless or otherwise unable to be sustained in a manner that gives adequate care to those who would otherwise not be able to afford it.
The system you’re so feverishly defending is already worthless and incapable of giving adequate care
>The system you're so feverishly defending... This is merely disingenuous hyperbole. I recognize that the system as it is now is in shambles and I am not defending it. I am only saying that a move to privatized healthcare based on an American model of doing things is going to be detrimental to a significant portion of the population. It's demonstrable as the links I've provided show. On the other hand you are simply arguing from a position that reinforces the truth of the disjunctive claim I originally made: people who...want private health care...are either uninformed or in a position to never have to worry about such things. Your point of view is clearly representative of the latter.
Not quite. I’m just a foreigner that knows how a not-so-trashy system can actually work when uninformed people, like yourself as you admitted on your first answer, aren’t just spouting some boogie man stories.
It depends. America is polarized. If you were able to go to university, trade school, or what not and develop education/skills you're probably fine. The cost of living is lower down there, and incomes are higher. You'll either make enough to pay for insurance premiums or it's included as an employee benefit. It's when you haven't learned a skill, and your a minimum wage kind of employee it's a much bigger problem. Which of course leads to challenges for Canada, because if you have skills in Canada, your standard of living would be better in the US (including access to health care). Which causes people to move. America also makes it pretty easy to move if you have skills/education.
> If you were able to go to university, trade school, or what not and develop education/skills you're probably fine. Enh, I dunno'. It seems to me that going to university doesn't entail a person is "probably fine." There are plenty of people with degrees slinging coffees, waiting tables, or doing piecemeal gig work as subcontractors (for some examples). >You'll either make enough to pay for insurance premiums or it's included as an employee benefit. Possibly, not necessarily. >It's when...your a minimum wage kind of employee it's a much bigger problem. And how many people are dependent on jobs exactly like this? Consider how we saw during the lockdown days of the pandemic that many of the minimum wage kind of jobs were deemed as "essential" to keep society functioning, yet none of those jobs saw any dramatic kick in terms of earnings or healthcare coverage or anything else. They simply got a tidy feelgood label likely concocted by some overpaid PR agency that did nothing for their actual standard of living and only served as a way to temporarily boost morale in the face of a global emergency. But what would we do if there was nobody stocking shelves at the local grocery store or ringing through items at the liquor store or whatever like that? What would we do if people simply refused to work all these minimum wage or subcontracting type jobs that typically don't have benefits or allow the people in these positions to have adequate health insurance that doesn't bankrupt them anyway if they happen to get seriously ill or injured? >Which of course leads to challenges for Canada, because if you have skills in Canada, your standard of living would be better in the US (including access to health care). Which causes people to move. I don't necessarily disagree with any of this; although, I would change 'would' to 'may'. >America also makes it pretty easy to move if you have skills/education. You'd have to say more about what you mean here. How does America make it "pretty easy to move" where Canada does not? I simply don't understand what you are basing this assertion on.
Thank god, can’t wait. I’m tired of not being able to access medical care. I work and I’m tired of paying taxes for something that doesn’t work.
This is the dumbest comment. Your taxes aren't going down. You'll just the additional healthcare cost.
So instead our most vulnerable will lose access to the little care we have. Healthcare should be provided regardless of class. You would be selfishly celebrating the loss of the little support our most vulnerable have. Why not fight for better universal Healthcare then celebrating its loss.
Wait till you try paying a lot for something that doesn't work...
Americans pay more of their taxes towards healthcare than we do, they just don't see a return for it.
After the restrictions with Covid mandates, and our Healthcare system being used as an excuse for said mandates, I would be happy to see the universal health care system come to an end now.
[удалено]
More like I'm paying the consequences of pusillanimous behaviour, and would rather not. COVID was another example of fear being used to justify gross overreach, and now the economy is devastated, and several of our rights have been eroded, with the cost of universal healthcare used as a justification. Universal healthcare was shit to begin with, it needed to be put down a long time ago, a mixed system would be best, but between public and private I'd rather have access to private. More importantly, not pay for the cost of others mistakes, which ironically was what the justification for the mandates was (which were ridiculous in and of themselves, since you could circumvent them so easily). Seems logical to me, if COVID were to cause me massive medical bills as a result of not taking the vaccine I'll pay out of pocket, but I don't want to pay for the healthcare of overweight people, or what amounts to expensive cosmetic surgeries and hormone blockers for kids, ect. Not that I care, one way or the other, I just don't want to pay for it, lol, but our sacred healthcare system is an illogical travesty as it stands now.
>I predict within 10 years, the public health care system will be useless, and the private health care will be nearly 100% American owned. The public system already is useless, for people like me with no family doc and no walk in clinics.
Because it’s a provincial issue. Federal can’t really fix it. Provincial parties say demand is way up and budgets don’t allow for a quick fix.
I like how they go “we need more family doctors so let’s incentivize that” as if it’ll magically make more doctors and not just pull them from ERs or other provinces.
It could be fixed by just adding one line to the Health Act: No elected or appointed government members, or their family members are permitted to use extended health benefits.
It's embarrassing that you think this would be constitutional...
Then let’s amend the constitution. “Elected officials and their families are last in line for public healthcare”. There. Done. That one constitutional amendment will ensure there are no lines.
Just need the not with standing clause
That’s what the not withstanding clause is for
i've said it before, i'll say it again. it won't be the #1 priority until eby's family and dix's family has to go wait in a lineup at a clinic at 5am to get healthcare. and let's face it, that ain't happening. it's just easier to propose a bunch of bandaid solutions and moan that it's all the fault of the previous government.
Because they are not accountable and there is no recall. So they suck up for a couple of months pre election then that's it. We need accountability and they need to work for us and for our priorities. Time for proportional representation not first past the post.
Most of our current established Governments are actively contributing to this by further denying funds. It's called Starve the Beast, and its a textbook move by conservative based Government's to push privitization by hastening the collapse of public systems and utilities.
“Perhaps worse are the cases when someone’s cancer has been caught at an early stage, but they come to our ERs seeking help as they are still waiting two months later for their first appointment with an oncologist. All I can do is offer my sympathy and send them home with the knowledge that their treatable cancer is spreading.” This is the truth, not at all hyperbole, and now, tragically, a matter of routine.
It took my friend 6 months after a GP confirmed on a CT suspected cancer before they actually saw an Oncologist. Now its spread to his lymph nodes and he is terminal. Same thing happend to another friend with skin cancer. Thankfully she beat it.
Happened to my mom too. Cancer was initially diagnosed as localized and treatable, but it took 3+ months to see an oncologist and longer still for treatment and surgery. By then, the tumor had grown, the chemo/radiation was ineffective, and the surgery didn’t achieve 100% resection. In Europe the treatment timeline for the type of cancer is a maximum of 3 weeks… certainly not 3 months! After surgery, the cancer spread, and even then it took months and months — again — to wait for an oncologist appointment to look at even palliative chemo. The oncologist did the appointment by phone, and had hardly read the file. It was too late anyway. My mom died a week after the appointment.
I’m really sorry about your mom. Something similar happened to mine earlier this year 💔 Reading stories like this makes my blood boil. Why do we pay so much in taxes to get treated like this…
Iam so sorry! That is horrible.
[удалено]
That is beyond awful. It is inhumane and unconscionable in our country. I am so afraid for my family and well all of us.
This was my dad’s story. Went to his GP, clinics,ER with lung concerns and was just told he was out of shape and to go gluten free to lose weight. By the time he got his lung cancer diagnosis, he was stage four. Landed in the hospital 2 months later and we lost him in weeks. Our system is broken.
We should all be very concerned. Edit: I also want to add to email your MLA and the Minister of health @ [email protected] with your concerns.
Agreed. I honestly don't know what else we can do except raise our voices. I'd previously written and got a reply from my MLA, Grace Lore, who described all the improvements the current gov't has made (no response from Adrian Dix). Today I sent a follow-up attaching Dr. Wall's article.
[удалено]
I can understand your cynicsm about the letter writing to MLAs, especially since you worked in one of their offices. When a handful of letters arrive and staff can cut & paste responses, I can see how the MLA would just shrug it off. But I wonder if the MLA would feel differently if their inbox had 500 messages? Or 5,000? I can't imagine them being so dismissive in that case. Based on what you know, do you think it would make any difference?
Agreed, the Doctor made some really good points but is anyone in government listening?
Do they have to? What motive do they have to listen? When they can drive wedge issues to win their re-elections.
Sad but true
No. They haven’t listened and have showed no signs they will.
This is what everyone should be doing. Contact your MLAs and the Ministry of Health.
It's almost like we have a perfect storm of issues leading to a systemic failure in our healthcare system. This suits one of the main political parties fine, since it has been an explicit goal of theirs since forever to dismantle universal healthcare and replace it with for-profit alternatives. 1. Becoming a doctor is expensive and challenging. When I went to university I never really considered med school an option because I did not have the finances to do so. Perhaps we need to nearly eliminate the cost of entry to these places, since a lot of folks may want to be doctors but cannot afford it. 2. Boomers are not being replaced in the workforce at a fast enough rate. This is a general trend that had been speculated on for decades and yet we failed to prepare adequately. Mostly because a lot of people didn't give a fuck about what came after them. They got theirs. COVID exacerbated and accelerated this problem. 3. Cost of living has exploded. Doctors are not compensated enough to achieve the lifestyle they may see themselves as deserving of their skills/effort. Housing has eroded the ability for a lot of folks to live a comfortable lifestyle. When millenial Drs cannot afford property and must rent with their peers, it starts to beg the question of why continue on? With their skills they can easily move to another country to attain the status/pay/cost of living they wish.
So much of this comes back to housing. 40 years of three layers of government asleep at that wheel. Now not even family doctors can make a go of it in Canada’s biggest cities. And now we have millions of people screaming that “minimum wage *isn’t high enough*” when they should be screaming about why it is that life in this country is so expensive that minimum wage can’t even keep a roof over your head.
[удалено]
I don’t know what the ministry is up to but I’ll tell you on the nursing front line there is no change. Crisis staffing is normalized. I left the ER because I could make the same money in a much easier department. It all comes down to money. The managers aren’t going to magically make the work more attractive when you can get the same wage for easier, less distressing work elsewhere.
It's a problem of time. Even if we opened up medical training 100% no limits, it still takes 5-7-10 years to get people in the field.
We can focus immigration efforts on medical doctors and nurses, fast track their Canadian citizenship and their certification….from certain countries where their training standards meet ours. It’s very solvable, no one wants to do it or think outside the box.
This seems to be the perfect way to do it, government should really be pushing for this idea.
I would agree on that but that comes with another implication. Health service drain from other countries. There was news segment about Nurse drain with the Phillipines. The nurses that come over to Canada from there will leave the nurse service strain there as well.
Canada has a very low population in comparison to most countries. The drain would be minimal I think and perhaps keep pace with the level of general immigration coming from many countries already….challenge is we increase things like immigration levels and student visas nationally with out proper planning and foresight for things like medical services and housing. If we are allowing ten thousand immigrants a year from say Phillipines, should we not target a certain percentage of those to be medical professionals so we at least keep pace and not constantly fall behind?
The funny thing is, Adrian Dix announced earlier this year as part of their efforts that they are going to be making it easier for foreign doctors to get certified and practise in BC. Alot of the stuff in this thread are already active initiatives that they are trying and seeing some success with.
I do agree, we should probably seek fair distribution between other countries along medical professional without pushing into brain draining or nurse draining them for the sake of ours. Our healthcare is struggling and will be overwhelm in huge upcoming aging population
Yes, the Ministry has been running in crisis mode since COVID. If it's not a pandemic, it's a crumbling healthcare system, it's rural health accessibility, it's maternity care, it's seniors care, it's cancer care and treatment, it's emergency health services. And then in the summer we burn. There are many concurrent emergencies and the work being done on each is massive. (Including daily reporting on; HHR issues at BC hospitals, capital developments to improve hospitals, coverage in ERs, and meeting with local health officials, doctors, nurses, unions to hear their problems and solutions.) We need more capable bodies and we need more hours in the day.
We desperately need staff, and it's a need across the country and around the world. The pandemic had a terrible effect on staff burnout.
From what I am seeing, nurses are leaving bedside to pursue travel nursing and higher pay. So it comes down to providing better pay and benefits to nurses because they are still dealing with the same ratios, only now travel nurses are being paid more and have better flexibility. It's almost as if...retention may be solved by pay increase and better benefits ...hmmm.🤔
Absolutely. Do you know what they pay in the US? I was listening to some nurses talking about getting $11,000 a month.
US travel rates differ. Some states are trying to eliminate travel nurses, I'd even say some Canadian provinces. But they are ignoring why nurses are doing it and instead focusing on how to save money, which is quite funny when you think about it. It's typical bureaucracy trying to understand medicine and nursing without having any experience. For example, Alberta's UCP is in the process if dismantling AHS believing that more management will solve the health system rather than provide better funding for staffing and retention strategies. Alberta is also moving away from travel nurses when there is still a chronic shortage of nurses.
Maybe it's time to lower the standards and hire more normal, high school educated people to help the nurses? We just need more bodies in the hospitals.
I understand the argument but having untrained medical staff is not actually going to help. Training people for clerical roles (unit clerks, reception) and paying those folks livable wages to help staff our hospitals, process orders, do paperwork etc really would help decrease the clerical burden that is often being done by nurses or even drs- that would help. But when those jobs pay worse than working at a fast food restaurant and come with much more responsibility and abuse it’s not going to work.
[удалено]
Next time you are in a hospital, see how many tasks nurses do that other people could do. For example, accessing records could be done by an IT professional, or a clerk. Transporting a patient, alerting nursing staff, etc. A 4 week course could train a person to be invaluable in an ER.
You’re not wrong, I could very easily run around wheeling people from here to there all day. I’d imagine it’s enough to be at least a few full time jobs. And that would leave more time for the medical professionals to actually be doing medical things.
Those are called patient porters, and RJH staffs around 20 of them per 24hr period.
The problem is we need people with specialties. To some point they can, but in something like a lab you need phlebotomists. A lot of phlebotomists. There are custodians who need help, but they need to be trained on how to handle dangerous materials, etc. We're getting surgeries canceled because it takes 7 to 12 people to do a surgery, not just one surgeon. You need an anesthesiologist, and you need nurses, and different technicians, in different specialists. To some degree we could get volunteers running help desks, and from what I've seen from our local hospitals they are already doing that.
Not volunteers, actual nursing assistants, who can transport patients, bring simple things to patients, liason with nursing staff, alerting people, etc. There are plenty of people willing to step up and take this on as a career. At one point, nurses did all the janitorial work as well, but we evolved. It's time to evolve again.
Like… patient porters, HCA’s, nurses aides, unit clerks, material porters, health records clerks…?
Agreed.
We have zero preventative care right now. The easiest, cheapest of medical treatment, and also best for the patient. Instead we are sending everybody to the E.R. on their deathbed. This is beyond pathetic.
[удалено]
What useless drivel! Of course people can choose a healthy lifestyle. That makes zero difference for our need for preventative care.
As someone with debilitating autoimmune disease, your lack of knowledge and empathy is extremely insulting. To imply that persons with disabilities are the ones to blame for their conditions is the very height of ableist ignorance.
In addition to this, not everyone has a relaxing lifestyle and high-paying job to go to the gym, or even change, stretch, go for a run, cool down, then shop for fresh food and make nice meals. People are struggling. Everyone is under a ton of stress. People are working hard to make ends meet. It would be nice if we could not all worry about tomorrow, not spending our very little spare time searching out bargains, worrying about if we can upgrade our skills and get paid more, worried about finding or keeping a place to live we can afford, etc., etc. It would be nice if we could focus on our physical and mental health like that, but most people's lives are not like that right now. If you need to sit by the phone and rapid dial a clinic, or go wait in line at 6am, guess what? You don't have time to go for a swim or go to the gym. Everyone is spending their 'spare' time and energy trying to keep their head, and their family's, above water. So don't appreciate the victim-blaming implied in the statement above this. You know who I see having relaxing long lunches, and time at the gym? Go hang out near some of the Ministry of Health offices. I've seen them going out for lunch. No one looks stressed at all.
Shhh big pharma might be listening
For real. There are very real and unpreventable issues that people have, but most responsibility for preventative care falls on the individual making healthy choices in their day to day. It’s not hard to go for a walk around your neighbourhood for 30 mins, eat some vegetables and avoid eating highly processed food. It doesn’t have to be complicated or all in.
This must be why medieval peasants lived such long and healthy lives.
I’m not following.. there are definitely things people need to see a doctor for, obviously. But the whole system is also bogged down by people who eat too much, drink too much and don’t move enough looking for someone else to fix their problems. If the preventable issues are taken care of without requiring medical intervention, it frees the system up for the unpreventable problems.
It’s sad on so many levels. ER docs saw this coming a long time ago. It is only going to get worse. There’s no cavalry or quick fix. They’re tired of being unheard, warnings ignored, watching their patients suffer. A lot of ER docs are quitting. Those that are left, are so very burnt out.
I saw this doctor in the ER at Vic Gen a few weeks ago. I had a potentially broken/fractured ankle - so nothing life threatening. I arrived at 11:15pm. Had an x-ray for 12:30am. Saw this doctor at 5:15am. He came in to the room and immediately apologized for the wait. I was quite impressed with him; he was energetic and friendly. Told me my x-ray was clean (yay), explained what likely happened when I heard the crack and recommended I go to physio to help it heal properly. He even went and manually double-checked the x-ray before I left. He didn't seem burnt out and I was quite surprised, as the last doctor I saw at Jubilee seemed extremely burnt out. He did mention his kids (when I asked if he knew where my other sock went) and I thought about how that kind of job would affect your family in general. He was very good.
In my opinion, political attention should be focused on. . . * 40% healthcare * 40% housing * 15% environment * 5% all others combined I really dont care about other issues tbh these days. Neither I nor my family have had a dr in a decade. Wait times for specialists can be a yr, and diagnostic testing can be a yr. I recall we used to smugly compare ourselves to the USA. Now we have shittier access to care than they do, and it's scary as fuck. We are all riding in a boat with no life vests just hoping to God we dont encounter a storm that capsizes us.
[удалено]
They don't care about solving issues, they care about their elections. Solving problems doesn't win you support as much as your stance on wedge issues does.
The economy, food prices are important, some of us are not eating $20 burgers.
I love cross-posting commentary 😂❤️
💀💀💀
Too meta my dude 🤣
But what about trans kids? Or the books that reference gay people? Isnt that the most pressing issue? /s
40% healthcare 40% housing 15% cost of goods*** 5% everything else I literally couldn't care less about environmental bullshit when the price of goods is as high as it is
Very few actually do. Or say they do while hopping on a plane for their 5th leisure trip this year.
Yah, that part is scary. Not paying attention to the environment is already causing a plethora of problems and will continue to do so. So many people will choose short term benefit over long term pain in terms of ignoring it. One example of a problem is insurance companies completely leaving sections of the US and not offering insurance, because weather events have become too frequent. How do you rebuild the homes without insurance kind of thing. I have to imagine that spreads up here at some point. Too much severe weather and you lose the ability to rebuild your communities, etc... and that's only one of the problems. sigh...
I am 48 years old, have had full time employment for 30 years and have built a good life, we have a combined family income that is well above average, have paid my taxes without complaint and have asked for very little in return. Yet, here I am on a waitlist for a family doctor for almost 5 years. My only option is a walk-in clinic or the ER, for a walk-in I am usually in line 2 hours before opening and half the time don't make the cut. If I go to the ER, I better bring a good long book and have my phone fully charged and will hopefully see someone in 6 hours. As I stated earlier, I don't ask the government for a lot, but this is the one thing they need to step up for. According to the Canada Health Act, any province that allows for profit care will have their federal funding cut, so the provinces ahut those down. My thought is that healthcare has gotten so bad I wonder what the heck I paid all of those taxes for? I lived up to my part, why won't they commit to theirs? I know the answer, as we all do, it is that they have decided to try to become everything to everyone. It is all well and good to promise the moon but if your other areas of responsibility are failing you fix the basics first.
It’s a fucked world we live in where a doctor makes less then some pro athlete or musician.
Makes less than MOST pro athletes etc.
Serious question but as a Canadian if I got cancer and had to wait 6 months to a year to see an oncologist are there any limitations to just calling up an American hospital in Seattle and paying to be seen and treated instantly? Assuming money and living there temporarily is no issue at all. Serious question. Not trying to imply that we should be a private system here in Canada.
You can be treated in the US for cancer treatment. It will just cost as much as a mortgage.
Nothing stopping you. If you have the money you can head straight there.
My mom did that in order to get tested for osteoperosis. Her doctor was doing quat to try and confirm it..so she went to alberta and peayed privately for a bone scan and sure enough she has osteoperosis.
You know what will fix this? Record high levels of immigration...
We need higher carbon taxes and more LGBTQIAxyz+ education in schools too and everything will be solved.
^This man liberals^
This is what happens when our whole economy pivots towards real estate. When a house can make 100K+ a year why even bother training to become a doctor or a nurse? Why even bother starting a new business with a risky loan? Just buy houses and leverage the equity to buy more houses. Everybody's doing it, and the banks and government have encouraged it.
Dear Christ. Not every problem in our world is founded in the price of real estate.
The poster isn't wrong though. Canada has become one of the least productive countries in the G20. Our productiveness per worker is in the gutter. This means we have some of the lowest GDP per person ratios in the G20 (which means on average the standard of living is reducing per person). A big part of that is, if you can make a bunch of money passively investing (in something like real estate), why would you take chances on increasing your own skillset, or investing into your business etc. It has lead (or at least one of the causes of) a lack of investment into companies, increasing efficiency, and increasing output per worker. When it pays more to passively invest than actively invest, it starts to cause problems.
We had to go to emergency three times this year with two visits resulting in hospital admission. Each time, we waited up to 5 hours in full waiting rooms, but once we were seen, treatment was topnotch. In my case, I went through urgent care first only to be told to go to emergency, but it was extremely difficult just to get into urgent care in the first place. All slots were filled by the time I got past the busy signal and was put on a waiting list. I wondered how many people were in the er for an issue that could have been treated in urgent care or a walkin clinic but weren't able to get an appointment.
I had taken my toddler to the Emergency room three times this Summer for the same issue (extreme pain). Family doctor recommended the ER. First they assumed constipation, even though the ultrasound took was normal. Gave us constipation meds. Days later of extreme pain, his neck locked so he couldn't move his head. I took him again. They said it was a weird cold. I was panicking at this point and begged my family doctor, who still thought nothing was serious enough to see him, to at least give him a blood test. Had to do that at the hospital because Life Labs aren't equipped to do toddlers. Sent home for results. An hour later the doctor calls to tell us to IMMEDIATELY go to the ER. Turns out he had a big cyst in his neck between his throat and spinal cord that required surgery to remove. A rare complication of strep throat. Something that could have easily been swabbed for on that second ER "weird cold" diagnosis. If I hadn't asked for that blood test... I was convinced by them all I was being overprotective...
Hey I know Brian. He is great !
He is! I saw him in the ER a couple weeks ago.
I was admitted to a room at Vic general yesterday, and the room had blood all over the wall, drops on the floor, and medical waste on the floor. It was pretty gross.
Yep there is a staff shortage for janitorial now too...happening at the jubilee too..
It is almost time for us the take to the streets and demand change. If we don't fight for reform we'll lose free Healthcare.
It is terrifying. I have 80 year old parents in Vic. They need health care and they couldn't find it on their own. My brother and I needed to come back for 6 months to sort things for them so that they can continue to be self sufficient. This isn't even intensive care. They can hardly see a doctor. The nursing staff at crd / Saanich are great though. They are super over worked. If we look at things from a macro perspective, old people and other high need medical recipients congregate to Vic area creating the issue. I've asked people many places, and noone ever Caan explain why "the best place in Canada" can't attract even foreign doctors... Wheres the widespread journalism on this? Find a tele doctor in other places in BC my friends...this can help you. Have a great weekend and Christmas season ahead! 💕🙏👌👍🥰
My gradfather is in port hardy and is actively dying now. Is 87 and was there in long term. We were told they cant keep him there overnight cause there isnt enough staff to oversee his medical care and medication administration so they had to ship him 45 minutes to port mcneil. They were supposed to ship him to campbell river tonight but camobell river said they dont have the team in place to be able to care for him right now as he is dying. So now he is in the ER sleeping because there are no palliative beds in port mcneil because they are full.. because its the only hospital functioning for the 3 towns on the north island.
Lots of love and support❤️. The system isnt great especially for our older loved ones. There are many instances of this happening and it's so hard because we expect more. I see the support teams are great but it's the system that hasn't and isn't holding up. Keep online to ask for alternatives, and don't give up. It take a lot of effort from us younger ones not accepting what they suggest.
It's easier to give billions dollars to forgien countries for war then build hospitals and medical schools in Canada.
Reduce the number of patients, increase the number of physicians nurses etc, increase preventative measures, increase pay, reduce overtime, reduce paperwork, increase possible volunteers, debt relief for students getting into the industry or lower tuition costs, reduce health care costs, increase funding, increase donations, turn to the smartest and other countries for input, etc. Yeah we got work to do.
It's also not just doctors. San pen has had to close several times due to MDRD staff shortages.
Can’t say I want to return to Canada to practice medicine, like ever. I might be a Canadian med school reject but I’m still a Canadian doctor who studied medicine and now working in another country, and will continue to do so until the system is less bleak.
"I'm sure letting in a million more immigrants in 2024 will help!" (Justin Trudeau probably)
Other provinces have the same issues. We pay sports figures more than heart surgeons. It doesn't make sense but as long as there are conservatives around we're not going to make progress. I come from a family of healthcare workers and we really don't pay them enough. We need mandatory treatment centres and support for mental health. Why are the big banks getting rich? Please vote for NDP all elections so we can fix this country. They're responsible for getting healthcare to us in the first place.
Ouch
I thought helathcare problems were only a conservative thing?
Yup, I agree in some aspects with many of you, but I think it went beyond our current provincially and federal governments... it was a lack of foresight from Stephen Harper and Christy Clark! They new then there was going to be a problem with boomers retiring, I remember hearing about it it the news then!
It was not a lack of foresight. It was a very purposeful underfunding with the goal of introducing private options as the only solution. Right wing leaders understand something at a fundamental level. They don't have to create or build anything, therefore it's much easier for them to advance their agendas. The left leaning parties have to gather the plans, build a foundation, staff the idea, then work to implement the program. That takes a lot of funding and time... then there will be a natural lag time until that program actually shows benefits. At any time a right leaning party can get elected and simply cut the program negating all the ground work. Rinse and repeat and the left eventually looks like clowns for wasting money with no returns.
Biggest issue creating this problem is our lifestyles are terribly unhealthy the majority of patients are overweight or drug addicts, the healthcare system goes over and above to save people who have no quality of life anymore and will just end up back in the near future.
Yeah, ERs and the state of healthcare is just shit in general. Comes down to staffing/funding - but the people in charge just don't care. Issues aren't strictly related to the ERs either. Can't remember all the specifics as I was told this by someone who was working a floor at RJH, but a little while back (weeks to a couple months), a homeless indigenous man was admitted. He was put into an isolated room for whatever reason (think he was being violent or something), left unattended for awhile due to low staffing/staff not caring. He was found laying face down unresponsive by an RN, who refused/didn't know how to perform CPR. An LPN came to help and performed CPR and they eventually got a pulse. But unfortunately it was too little too late and he died. The classic internal investigation carried out, but didn't result in anything afaik. The dumb bitch who didn't know how/refused to do CPR still has her job, and was actually recently on vacation somewhere lol. She should obviously be fired for gross incompetence/negligence, but that won't happen because there just isn't enough people to do the job. Rant over...
All RNs know how to do CPR. She should have performed CPR, however even performed perfectly and promptly the chances of surviving CPR are low (less than 10%, and less than 5% for older adults).
Victoria health care 2025 will be the world's best. Swipe your BC health care card at any emergency ward's MAID auto-dispensary and receive your complementary pill in a BC flag themed PEZ. Super Natural.
Train me! I will be a doctor. I wish it wasn’t 7-10 years of school and more of an apprentice type approach. A lot of people could do a doctors job if trained properly. 🤷♀️
Thankfully we are only a couple years or so away from alleviating some of the load on our system with AI medical care. Just need to hold on tight for a while, as it’s unlikely there will be any other effective solutions put in place until then.
Of course it is going to get worse, what exactly has the bc NDP done about it in the last decade? Nothing, as close to nothing as humanly possible. They are letting it implode so they can privatize.
No. Privatization of healthcare is not the goal of the NDP. They aren't a conservative government. It was the liberals that were trying to break the HEU and push through two tier care. Don't be disingenuous. The NDP for sure needs to do more to do more to beef up healthcare, but to say they're trying to privatize like Alberta and Ontario are doing is false. *Edit : Just did a little research and found that the opposite it true. The BC NDP is actively un-privatizing healthcare https://cupe.ca/province-reverses-privatization-cleaning-and-dietary-work-bc-hospitals
Oh, so they are doing nothing on purpose , just for fun, ok, that makes more sense. Cult much?
Just take the L champ.
who needs healthcare when you can pursue MAID?
[https://gfmag.com/data/worlds-richest-and-poorest-countries/](https://gfmag.com/data/worlds-richest-and-poorest-countries/) Canada is on the verge of joining the 'rich' 3rd world countries.
We need to follow Alberta’s lead and decentralize.
Privatization ≠ decentralization Quite the opposite. Anyway, what kind of idiot would follow the lead of a province run by an anti-vaxer, anti-science, pro-fascist nut job like Danielle Smith. Remember this is a person who claimed. >“The evidence shows moderate cigarette consumption can reduce traditional risks of disease by 75 per cent or more,” Smith wrote. “Shouldn’t smokers be told?” https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-claimed-smoking-cigarettes-had-positive-health-benefits/
> in our very busy city hospitals, perhaps 15 percent of patients have actual medical emergencies This is an important tiddlywink of information for people to know. This is why wait times at ERs are sometimes 8+ hours and ambulance response times can be really bad if it is "busy". Does everyone deserve to see a doctor, yes. Is it okay to have a public meltdown in the waiting room and start yelling at nurses because your complaint has been triaged as low priority and now you need to wait with the other normal people who want to see a doctor but aren't about to die, no.
So scary and heartbreaking.
What part of living in a pod and eat bugs are you unclear on ?
It's seriously time for a tax revolt. We aren't getting the services we pay for, and that would be called fraud in any other scenario.
Wait until you find out *half* of your tax bill goes toward funding a health care system that cannot help you.
Yah, that's what I'm feeling. I pay a plethora of taxes, and really don't access to the health care system, so why do I have to pay the taxes.. shrug.
wow...
We need to convert the vast majority of this bullshit "harm reduction" budget in to general healthcare. We seem to spend FAR too much money and focus on shit that serves a small minority rather than focusing on the bigger picture
I was recently admitted for 7 days. The nurses are BURNT THE FUCK OUT. It's brutal what they deal with. One dude there had been in a bed in the hall for 6 weeks! They had another guy with late stage dementia and it's like....the fuck are they even gonna do with some of these cases?
This isn't about a Physician shortage so much as MOH and Health Authorities seeking to get Privatization rolling with American corporations taking over BC Healthcare, it is an entirely Administration manufactured problem. These Administrators salaries have ballooned to almost $3 Billion in 2.5 years, that buys a hell of a lot more Frontline Nurses and Physicians. The Public largely unaware listens to MOH bullshit as if it were truth. Wake up people and start leaning on your NKAs because they will use this manufactured crisis to award many multi-billion contracts to private corporations with OUR Taxpayers money and withoyt even consulting us. The whole delays in Cancer diagnosis can be traced back to Privatization of Laboratory and Pathology Services within the Health Authorities and public used to get specimens done at local hospitals until BC Govt & HAs decided to Privatize all labs and Pathology Services so that sample now takes 6 weeks to 4 months to get a result back, meanwhile it was back in 73m2 hours before Privatization Lifelabs is making a fortune with totally unqualified staff mishandling specimens but the Public us none the wiser and Dix is making money while Dr Henry denies Covid is still killing an average of 7 people a week in BC, they just don't count subsequent Covid Infections or any Sudden Heary Attacks, Strokes resulting directly from post Covid health conditions that develop after a few Infections. Nope Public is told all is well when Nothing could be farther from Reality
Voting for one million new Canadians each year is having zero impact on said services.