Health problems worsen as B.C. waits for medical capacity solutions

More British Columbians than residents of any other province have a medical problem that has worsened over the past three months because they have not been able to see a doctor or health professional due to COVID-19.

International market-research and polling company Maru Public Opinion released the results of a public-opinion survey that found 23 per cent of British Columbians reported worsening conditions, compared to a national average of just 17 per cent.

The Maru poll comes at a time when public concern is rising over health-care capacity and the B.C. government’s failure to advance plans to tackle the crisis.

The B.C. Catholic reported last week on health-care demands, quoting observers who said improving the health-care system is an important moral issue as well as a medical one.

But after almost two years of maintaining that stringent anti-pandemic measures were justified by the need to protect the country’s health-care system, the B.C. government is still not answering questions about what should be done to make that beleaguered system more robust.

While Health Minister Adrian Dix and ministry officials have failed to answer the B.C. Catholic’s emailed questions about, for example, Canada’s dismal hospital-bed-to population ratio (2.52-to-1,000, which is the lowest of G8 nations and only half of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recommended level), Opposition politicians in this province have begun weighing in.

B.C. Liberal interim Leader Shirley Bond provided a detailed response to B.C. Catholic questions about improving the health-care system, saying she is in “full agreement” that the system needs to be made more robust.

“In the 2020 election, the NDP promised a health human resources plan, but we have yet to see them deliver on that promise,” Bond said in a Jan. 18 email.

“British Columbians deserve a high-quality, properly-resourced healthcare system, not just for dealing with COVID-19, but for the rest of their healthcare needs as well. As we’ve seen with recent surgery cancellations, these postponements put another heavy burden on both healthcare workers as well as those who desperately need treatment.”

Bond said her party’s caucus has specifically asked the government for a plan to deal with capacity issues. “We also remain deeply concerned about the impacts on the healthcare system of the opioid crisis, extreme weather events and the need for change in the provision of care for seniors in our province, both for residents in long-term care facilities and for the majority of seniors who remain in community,” she said.

Bond and other party members pointed out last week that the number of British Columbians unattached to a primary-care provider has increased by more than 100,000 people to 800,000 since the NDP formed government. 

“The NDP campaigned in 2017 on the promise of increasing access to primary care providers in B.C. and making our healthcare system work for everyone,” Bond said, “but what we have seen, even before COVID-19, is that the need for access continues and remains a significant issue that needs to be addressed.”

Health care was front and centre at the final Liberal leadership debate Jan. 18, as candidates were asked whether they would consider for-profit options to remedy the health-care-capacity crisis. Most skirted the politically sensitive issue, but Kevin Falcon, a former health minister himself, suggested the issue is being raised by those who want to intentionally mislead the public about solutions to the crisis.

“The NDP love to bring [it] out all the time, trying to create some fear that we’re all trying to get a U.S.- style health system,” Falcon said. “Let me tell you: private care [clinics] started under the NDP in the 1990s. They’ve always played a role in our system. That’s where our WCB patients, union individuals go to get looked after.”

“My interests are what’s in the best interests of the patients and I’m going to be focused on a system that is focused on outcomes.”

Meantime, Maru also reported that 79 per cent of British Columbians are alarmed about the impact of the Omicron virus on their local health-care system and hospitals (compared to 81 per cent of all Canadians), and 37 per cent do not believe their community hospitals have the capacity to treat them for a serious medical condition if they needed to be cared for (compared to a national average of 45 per cent).