It was with great disappointment that I read Marty Lovick's response to my letter of Jan. 11 (Real health-care answers, Letters to the editor, The Record, Jan. 18). In my letter, I questioned the so-called "health-care solutions" the local NDP candidate had offered in the wake of this year's annual Royal Columbian Hospital ER overflow episode and presented a series of practical solutions of my own.
Unfortunately, Mr. Lovick chose to greatly mischaracterize what I said, and his partisan attack, devoid of concrete suggestions, does nothing to further what is unquestionably a vital discussion that needs to take place.
Contrary to Mr. Lovick's assertion, my letter of Jan. 11 (Time to listen to hospital workers, Letters to the editor, The Record) contained very specific solutions that would help address B.C. health-care issues.
These solutions ranged from better utilizing the true abilities of our valued health-care workers, by removing restrictions on which hospital staff can address which patient issues, to increasing health-issue prevention awareness campaigns, such as the B.C. government's very popular Quitnow.ca anti-smoking program, which will help to reduce the $605 million per year in direct health-care costs related to smoking and increase British Columbians' overall quality of life.
And finally, I called for an independent commission to review the B.C. health-care system, in consultation with the public and other stakeholders, to identify areas of opportunity within the existing health-care system funding envelope to spur innovation in service delivery.
The reason I suggested these options, as opposed to simply pouring billions of new dollars that we don't have into the current system (which happens to be the solution favoured by the NDP and their health-care union-lobbyist-turned-New Westminster-NDP-candidate) is quite simple: According to the OECD, Canada is currently ranked fourth in per capita health spending, but ranked 12th out of 17 of the world's richest nations for health outcomes - meaning we spend a lot, but get little.
This OECD study, as well as other reports, have prompted the parliamentary budget office of Canada to raise alarm bells about our nation's public health-care system, because current growth in health-care spending well outpaces our country's revenues' ability to keep pace, which severely threatens other vital areas of public spending.
The Certified General Accountants of Canada, as well as the Conference Board of Canada, have released similar international studies of their own, demonstrating inarguably that health-care spending has no inherent relation to better health-care outcomes and stating that Canada (with B.C. very much included) must take immediate action to innovate and change the way health care is delivered.
The federal government has responded to this information by ending the automatic six per cent annual increases in funding to the provinces, moving instead to a model tied to economic growth, which could potentially leave B.C. with fewer health-care dollars to work with.
This move prompted Premier Christy Clark and her fellow premiers to release a joint statement last week in which the premiers said they will aggressively seek opportunities for innovation and efficiency in order to offer better health-care outcomes and do so within budgets that are more sustainable.
Which brings me back to my original point from a week ago: Why are the NDP and their special interest focused candidate in New Westminster so out of touch on health care? Massive, self-serving public spending increases are not what frontline workers, patients and dozens of respected independent organizations are calling for.
Clearly, it's time to innovate, time to put people first and time for 21st-century leadership.
Hector D. Bremner is a candidate seeking the B.C. Liberal nomination for New Westminster.
