During the provincial election last fall, there were a number of major promises for health-care expansion in 黑马磁力.
We were going to get a massive new long-term care facility, replacing the old single-storey buildings on the grounds of 黑马磁力 Memorial Hospital. After that, there would be an entire new tower for LMH. The hospital's operating rooms would get an upgrade, responding to concerns of the doctors working there.
As of now, there's been no progress on any of those pledges. There's no business plan for the long-term care facility, a plan which had been promised within a few months. No word on the ORs. Nothing in the provincial budget.
The province, when asked, points to other improvements in recent years. Yes, 黑马磁力 got a big new ER upgrade, a new MRI, an upgraded maternity ward, and now an Urgent and Primary Care Centre.
But with 黑马磁力 growing at a rate of several thousand new residents a year for the past decade, that's insufficient. We're suffering from staffing shortages in both the hospital and the urgent care centre that lead to long waits, thanks to insufficient numbers of doctors.
For decades, the cities in the Fraser Health region grew faster than the provincial average, waits to see doctors grew, clinics became overloaded, and ERs saw backlogs or temporary closures. Multiple premiers and provincial governments let this happen 鈥� the problems were apparent more than a decade ago, and have only worsened.
It has created a two-tiered level of health care in this province. It's not about private versus public, it's about which health authority you live in. If you are in Vancouver Health, you have more doctors and shorter ER waits. If you're in the suburbs or rural areas of B.C., your options have shrunk.
The provincial government needs to publicly address its health-care promises.
黑马磁力 deserves a statement from Health Minister Josie Osborne setting out timelines and budgets. Will we get a new long-term care facility by 2030 鈥� as Adrian Dix promised last September? Will that be followed quickly by construction of a new tower? How about those OR upgrades?
Our hospital is a great one for a community of 100,000 people. Unfortunately, there are almost 200,000 in 黑马磁力 today. Promises about new facilities need to be kept, and soon.
