YOUR PERSPECTIVE: Action and accountability needed in B.C.’s health care crisis.

You would think that with a health care system in a state of absolute crisis, Health Minister Adrian Dix would consider ideas to improve it — no matter where they come from. Yet the minister and his NDP government seem unwilling to listen, whether it’s to the Official Opposition or the health care workers calling for change.

We know that one in five British Columbians is without a family doctor, due to a number of issues in primary care. Not only does this create stress for those patients, it creates more pressure elsewhere in the system. Those without a family doctor are forced to wait long periods of time in a walk-in clinic lineup, if they can get in at all — or they have to try the emergency room (ER) or an Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC).

Three weeks ago, the BC Liberals released a 30-day action plan to address issues around primary care. We called for improved compensation for overhead and operating costs; a simplified fee schedule; and accelerated accreditation and certification of foreign-trained doctors, among other suggestions. We also reiterated our call for a health human resources strategy, which has been long-promised but never delivered by the NDP.

We’ve also called for an audit to address the NDP’s UPCCs, which also remain understaffed. They are falling short of their goals to attach patients and are often at capacity just a few hours after opening. In the case of Abbotsford’s UPCC, it is failing to meet the needs of our residents. Despite being designed to offer both primary care and emergency services, the medical centre didn’t even start offering urgent care until last November, more than a year after it opened. Data on UPCC staffing from the Ministry of Health shows that Abbotsford’s UPCC has only 53 per cent of the staff it is budgeted for, and only eight per cent of the physicians it should have.