Reprioritize BC’s vision for healthcare

A lack of access to primary care has meant more people do not get care for their ailments at early stages. This puts more pressure on acute care, and ultimately costs the system significantly more money.

Robust primary care through community health centres is the best way to ensure British Columbians stay healthy in the first place. Healthy patients make for the best medicine and best economics.

When healthcare workers come forward with concerns about the healthcare system, they don’t point to lack of funding. They point to working conditions, and standards of care.

While investments in facilities, equipment and people are necessary to support good healthcare delivery, they are the means for achieving good healthcare delivery, not the outcome. To measure the success of any initiative, our healthcare leaders need to be explicit about the goal and how we will evaluate its success. 10 new MRIs is not a success. 500 fewer people with late-stage cancer is a success.

BC is notorious for not sharing key information, or making it hard to find. Data and decisions need to be communicated in detail so that British Columbians understand how decisions were made.

Create an easily accessible dashboard of key performance indicators, such as the number of people attached to a primary care provider, so that British Columbians, researchers and media can easily understand the challenges facing our healthcare system and the progress we are making to overcome them. 

Offer reliable, monthly press briefings on progress implementing programs and solutions.