North Island MLA Anna Kindy challenged the provincial government regarding healthcare waitlists during a question period on May 28.
"BC Health Services are failing," she said. "This government, after eight years in power, is in crisis management in every aspect of health care and delivery."
During her time, she spoke of a pediatrician who told her that the waitlist to see them had increased to two years. She also spoke of a North Saanich patient who was unable to get a lung biopsy for eight weeks. And after six months, still has yet to see an oncologist.
"People in BC are suffering and getting sicker and dying waiting to see specialists. This government's reassurances and platitudes are meaningless when people are continuously falling through the cracks. So how long do the wait lists have to be before this government takes this issue seriously?"
Health Minister Josie Osborne admitted it was "incredibly frustrating" for people to wait to be able to see themselves or loved ones on a wait list see a specialist. Osborne, addressing the House Speaker, said the government is generally meeting their waitlist time targets for urgent cases.
"But, we know there is a lot more work to do when it comes improving wait times for non-urgent cases and chronic conditions, and we have a growing, aging population here with more complex health care problems, and that means we need to continue to redouble efforts," she said. "And that's why we're doing all the work that is underway to attract and retain more specialists, more physicians."
Osborne spoke of recruitment campaigns in the United States and stated that 140 cancer physicians have been hired and have moved to British Columbia over the last couple of years.
"We know there is an incredible amount of work still to do. We are working to streamline wait lists with health authorities, building more hospitals, adding more room capacity," said Osborne. "We're not going to stop because we know that British Columbians deserve to get the care in a timely and equitable way, and that's exactly what we're going to stay focused on."
