BC NDP leader responds to health-care crisis at Abbotsford Regional Hospital

Following 1130 NewsRadio’s exclusive coverage of a group of doctors at Abbotsford Regional Hospital (ARH) sounding the alarm on an out-of-control health-care crisis with patient care “on the verge of collapse” at the facility, the head of the BC NDP is responding.

Speaking Thursday, Leader David Eby said the issues at the hospital are not just happening in Abbotsford, but across the country.

“We have a shortage of the skilled health care workers that we need in Canada,” he said.

He said that if elected in next month’s provincial election, his party will try to boost hiring for emergency rooms.

“Getting additional health care workers off the sidelines and into the emergency rooms is going to be the short-term piece and for the longer-term piece, training up those health care workers,” he said.

“We will be, if we’ve earned the trust of British Columbians through this election campaign, we’ll be directing the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the College of Nurses to recognize the credentials of any Canadian doctor immediately with a provisional license and any comparable trained physician internationally within six weeks to start working here in British Columbia, instead of the months-long wait that they have currently.”

He claimed the NDP will also get rid of “the red tape” that’s currently holding physicians back from working in a health authority outside of their own.

“So, doctors who have the skills to work in emergency rooms can work in any emergency room across the province to help us backfill.”

Eby says in the grand scheme, the BC NDP, should it form government again, will be relying heavily on training local health care workers at a new medical school in Surrey.

“This is all hands on deck to address this issue. We’re making good progress on the family doctor issue. We’re hoping to connect 160,000 more people to a family doctor in the next six months. We’re turning the corner on this issue. On emergency rooms, it’s a stubborn issue.”

Earlier this year, Doctors of BC said more people now have access to primary care and it was no longer one million British Columbians without access to a family doctor.

“That number is probably now in the mid to high 700,000 number, because we’ve been able to attract more family physicians to British Columbia,” Dr. Ahmer Karimuddin, president of Doctors of BC, told 1130 NewsRadio in February.

The province’s two other main political parties have also made health-care promises.

The BC Conservatives say they will “implement a ‘Wait Time Guarantee’ that would arrange for care outside the province if services were not available in B.C. in a reasonable time.”

The BC Green Party would, “Establish a network of 93 community health centres across the province within the first year as part of what the party has called the ‘Dogwood model'” — a model it says streamlines complicated referrals and ensures comprehensive care all in one place.

The provincial election is on Oct. 19.