Healthcare authorities are too focused on systems and processes that impede effective healthcare delivery. The Ministry of Health pours money into new facilities and equipment without making necessary changes to retain the human resources to operate them. There are far too many Vice Presidents, managers and executives with amorphous job descriptions. The healthcare authority model needs to be examined for its effectiveness and streamlined to cut out wasted time and resources.
The BC Greens' plan for Re-evaluating health authority structures and spending
Health authorities are overly bureaucratic, with a hyper-focus on systems and processes that get in the way of healthcare delivery. We need to take an honest look at how this model can be improved or replaced.
Primary care providers have shared how the Ministry of Health and health authorities have actively worked against the creation of community health centres (CHCs), despite the fact that CHCs could alleviate many of the pressures on the system itself. Our healthcare structures should be flexible and adaptable enough to support new ideas and solutions brought forward by communities and frontline workers.
There are entire wings of hospital beds that are not staffed, and many unused diagnostic imaging (like MRI) spots. We don't need to spend millions of dollars on new MRI machines - the problem is not having the right people to do these tests.
There are 64 vice presidents and 6 presidents for 6 health authorities, plus hundreds of managers and supervisors with amorphous job descriptions. Based on publicly-available data, the average salary for an executive was $396,773/year in 2022. This figure does not include the 36 executive roles whose salaries are not publicly disclosed.
By contrast, Alberta has one health authority and 7 executives total.