Prince George fed up with health care wait times

“I think about if something bad happens to us, what’s going to be the consequence? Who is going to be responsible and how fast they are going to treat the people who needs help,” said Sami Mohammady Zadeh, another person in line.

With frustration mounting, all eyes are on how each party will address the problems plaguing healthcare in Prince George and Northern B.C. CKPG News reached out to the BC Conservative Party three times but received no response, but per its website it promises a “patient first” approach that would implement European-style activity based funding, among other promises.

“This will see hospitals, Regional Health Authorities, and/or other non-government facilities funded based on their output – each time they treat patients for specific diagnostic and priority procedures, they receive additional funds. This approach incentivizes providers to be more efficient and treat as many patients as possible,” the website explains.

As for the incumbent BC NDP, Health Minister Adrian Dix points to both past successes and current ongoing projects for its strategy, which includes setting a record for amount of family doctors hired last year and tripling the intake of the Practice Ready Assessment Program from 32 to 96.

“We’re building hospitals across the north, something that didn’t happen really for a generation. So the new tower in Prince George, but also a new hospital opening in Fort St. James, the new hospital opening in Terrace, the new hospital being built in Dawson Creek, all of those were not dealt with for decades. And the one in Fort St. James in particular, in Mr. Rustad‘s riding, he did nothing on that, it took an NDP government to finally get that hospital built,” Dix said.

Dix added he wanted to acknowledge the current status of healthcare isn’t good enough, but hopes to convince voters that continuing to ride with the NDP and the positive steps it has taken would be better than switching governments and potentially undoing some of these actions.

“This is a commitment to northern B.C. in terms of health care, in terms of public health care, that really contrast with the severe cuts that would come with John Rustad and a privatization model that surely doesn’t work for For St. James or Vanderhoof or Prince Rupert or even Prince George,” Dix said.

As for the BC Green Party, James Steidle, the BC Green Party Candidate for Prince George- Mackenzie riding, explains a big focus for the Party is streamlining the administrative work.

“We want to create kind of a one stop shop for the administration of health care, and have that be an administrative structure that would deal with all the paperwork, because right now our physicians are just buried in paperwork. I think across Canada, 18.9 million hours of physician time is is wasted doing administrative paperwork,” Steidle said.

With advance voting beginning next week and voting already open at District Electoral Offices, how each party responds to healthcare concerns could be a key factor in deciding the victor in certain ridings.

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by Tommy Osborne

Prince George fed up with health care wait times

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