A New 'Patients First’ Healthcare Model
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Our BC healthcare system is in crisis. It is failing British Columbians.
Despite spending more than 27 comparable countries, British Columbia trails far behind when it comes to the number of acute care beds, doctors, nurses, MRI machines and other health care resources.
Canadian Institute for Health Information shows BC’s wait times for priority surgery procedures have worsened over the past decade under the current NDP government’s watch. SecondStreet.org reports that at least 3,365 patients died in British Columbia while waiting for either surgery or diagnostic tests. Emergency room closures have become all too familiar under the NDP’s health care rationing.
Our current healthcare model no longer works, especially when compared to countless other countries in the world with better-performing universal systems, particularly in Europe.
Simply put, the system is controlled by NDP ideology and politics – the results speak for themselves.
It’s time for a change.
The Conservative Party of BC will implement a new ‘Patients First’ Healthcare Model: universal healthcare for everyone under a single-payer system that increases spending each year and delivering care through both public and non-governmental facilities.
Expand Access to Care & End Long Wait Times
Access to a waiting list is not access to healthcare. It’s time to get British Columbians off long waiting lists and into operating rooms and family doctor’s offices so they can access the care and treatment they desperately need.
The status quo can’t continue. We need to get wait times under control and get British Columbians the care and treatment they need.
The Conservative Party of BC will:
- Implement European-style Activity Based Funding
Instead of simply throwing money at health facilities and hoping for the best (the “block grant” model), the Conservative Party will implement what has effectively worked well in European countries and Quebec – a policy known as “activity-based funding”.
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.
Establishing The Patients First: Wait Time Guarantee
The Conservative Party of BC will immediately take action to help patients who are suffering on long waiting lists now.
After a brief consultation period, the Conservative Party of BC will:
- Implement the Patients First Wait Time Guarantee for select diagnostics and surgical procedures.
If diagnostic or medical procedures exceed medically recommended wait times, patients would be able to access care at a pre-approved facility out-of-province and be re-imbursed according to a set fee schedule. A similar policy (Cross Border Directive) has been helping patients across the European Union since 2013.
Improving Access by Expanding Publicly Funded Partnerships with Non-Governmental Clinics
While patients suffer on long waiting lists across the province, the NDP has refused to maximize opportunities to partner with non-government health care facilities that could help patients today.
Simply put, the NDP are putting ideology ahead of healthcare. That needs to change.
The Conservative Party of BC will:
- Pay for patients in the public system to receive quality health care services in non-governmental clinics for specific priority procedures and diagnostic services.
We will get people off waiting lists and into operating rooms and diagnostic clinics for services like MRIs and priority surgeries. It makes no sense for non-government health facilities to sit idle when they could be contracted to help BC patients right now.
Help British Columbians Get a Family Doctor
When patients don’t have a family doctor, it often requires them to seek the care and treatment they need at community clinics, urgent care centers, and hospital emergency rooms leading to even longer wait times in these facilities.
One way to increase access to family doctors is to free up doctors’ time to see more patients. Right now, doctors face a growing mountain of paper work and red tape. The Canadian Medical Association even has a term for this problem – “the invisible crisis in family medicine.”
Ultimately, tying up doctors’ time with paper work reduces the amount of time they have to help patients.
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