You will have heard, often enough, of how we, as a society, are scolded for taking our health for granted.
The popular media tell us so.
Our doctors, if necessary, never let us forget.
But what to do when it’s the government that takes our health for granted?
What if, worse yet, they don’t really care?
A sharp pain; a dull ache, and off we go to plead for an answer–and one that’s immediate, thank you very much.
A broken leg or clogged artery? Welcome! Please take your seat.
Since its inception, healthcare in Canada has come under growing pressure. An aging population that didn’t quite catch the full crest of the healthier lifestyle kick, as younger generations may have, and now an aging, although quite more robust, baby boomer generation settling into their retirement years; our demands are growing, our needs are larger.
Discoveries of previously undiagnosed diseases are more efficient and prevalent. We are, generally speaking, healthier, but when we are sick the strain on the medical system is extensive.
Well, I’m here to tell you, that at least in British Columbia, the BC Liberal government doesn’t care. Not a damn. Far from the pervasive lie, continually perpetrated by a meandering and feckless Premier, of how we were not as well off under the so-called ‘Lost Decade’ (and there is some, LIMITED legitimacy to this description) during the 90s under the BC NDP, this government is solely responsible for the longer waiting lists, increased suffering, deteriorating infrastructure, absent innovation (although they claim otherwise) and detrimentally swelling bureaucracy–this last one literally squeezing the life out of our healthcare system.
Rather than shirk the sickly national example, British Columbia’s become its poster child.
Our results are no better, nationally, than other smaller countries with equally challenging healthcare profiles, but who spend less. Canada’s federal and provincial health ministries, I hope you’re seated, carry 24,000 employees.
That’s one public service health administrator for every 1,415 Canadians.
In Germany, for example, one health administrator serves 15,545 Germans–a tenfold difference.
In British Columbia, it much worse.
Take St. Paul’s hospital as an example. In 1980, they boasted 6 administrators and 475 beds.
Today, St. Paul’s Hospital has reduced the number of beds to 325. And, brace yourselves, hosts 380 administrators. That’s breathtaking. There is no excuse.
Years ago, when Grace Hospital (where I was born in June of 1966), otherwise known as Shaughnessy Hospital (after amalgamation) was “shut down” to reinvent as BC Women’s and Children’s Hospital, adult care went to Vancouver General Hospital and child care went 150 feet.
But the entire block of older facilities was turned into offices for administrators. The molehills of paperwork were increased into mountains, just to fill the available brief cases.
Through successive Socred and NDP governments, not one stemmed the bleeding, but at least they didn’t tear open new wounds and kill the system. That ignominy rests solely at the feet of the BC Liberals.
The enormity of the problem has reached a crescendo under this government and can be nowhere better illustrated than in their own numbers. The total budget for healthcare in BC is $17,000,000,000 dollars. On administration? A whopping $1,400,000,000–strictly on administrative costs for this province alone.
Healthcare costs alone have DOUBLED under the BC Liberals.
And it never mattered who the health minister was. It was bad enough under Colin Hansen, but we didn’t get cooking until Kevin Falcon–who always prides (and markets) himself, as a fiscal genius. Falcon introduced something called “patient-focused funding.” It was purported to increase efficiencies in getting BCers the care they needed. Instead, the net result, was that it added yet another massive layer of administration and didn’t, at all, reduce waiting lists or hasten critical care surgeries–which is precisely what Gordon Campbell forced Falcon to promise.
The net damage? An increase of $100,000,000 in specific costs per year.
It was apparently lost on Minister Falcon that the number of health bureaucrats in Canada is TEN TIMES that, per capita, of Germany. BC, leading the way, with the fastest growing health bureaucracy.
But you’ll never hear that in the mainstream media. So good are the BC Liberals at controlling the message, that the public (and the media, often willfully) are duped into a complacency, rarely seen in any public policy matter or debate. Instead of real innovation and integration, the tens of thousands of healthcare bureaucrats aren’t too timid to help institute leadership, authentic coherence in health policy and streamlined regulations–it’s a matter of job preservation to ignore any positive changes and simply follow a purposeless, corrupt government into the abyss.
The paper shuffle is just too lucrative.
Although, this government has NEVER played a better game at covering for its clear negligence than under current Minister of Health, Mike deJong. Having kept stacked that dozens of health boards, associated agencies and support groups with BC Liberal appointees (think of Denise Turner at CLBC), the buffer is set, and deJong refuses to listen to anyone on the front lines, who might have improvements to offer.
Think about it: The health boards and authorities take the criticism and bad news when ‘C difficile‘ is endured, sparing the government from any response. And why not? They’re being paid to do so! Look at the Fraser Health Authority alone. Promotions are doled out for best following the government line. It used to be, under the Socreds and NDP, that there was community involvement. Appointments came from the respective communities and were largely non-partisan–you had to qualify. Now, all appointments come from inside the BC Liberal fold.
Under the BC Liberals, the reprehensible and scandalous politicization of this province’s health boards is utterly complete.
As if this wasn’t Draconian enough, under this government, free speech on our healthcare crisis, is stifled by threats. No contractor/member (nurses, technicians, etc.) may speak out–not one. What happened, not long ago, when maternal safety was raised in Victoria? A letter was hastily sent out threatening ANYONE with immediate dismissal should a public statement be proffered.
Half a century ago, when healthcare really started to take shape, there were greater freedoms, and, thus, increased per capita productivity–during a time when technological advance and systemic orderliness were in their infancy. Now, notwithstanding a healthier population, as well booming medical advance, we’re regressing and failing our people. Doctors were covered and hospitals were covered. Nothing’s changed there. But medical services and health authorities now come out of the same dwindling budgets and are stretched taut. Take, for example, a patient that is dual diagnosis (with addiction/substance abuse problems and mental health issues). Such comorbidity is treated through the prism of harm seduction–dealing with only the symptoms of the problem. It’s easier and the overly generous supports provided the grief pimp industry are immediate–but key, too–they’re less costly (nevermind the manifest failure of reducing addiction). The actual mental health problem is given a lower priority, hence, guaranteeing the addict as guinea pig. The mental health issue is controlled with drugs, too. But reopen institutions or invest in new ones to make them better? Of course not. It’s cheaper give in to BigPhrama, hail InSite a success in putting HIV and Hep C into abeyance, and all while facilitating addictions. What a perfect storm for povertarian whores! Of course, Falcon, Clark and deJong campaigned on keeping InSite open–it’s just cheaper to keep the cycle of grief going–and it also keeps quiet, the almost perpetually whining grief pimps making millions off the living-dead on the Downtown Eastside. (You’ll rarely hear of Surrey’s successes in this field, and done without the harm seduction platform).
As a result, to treat the mental health issues while a patient is ‘coming down’ is to be subjected to traveling a labyrinth of competing fiefdoms to get better. And all that for ONE MILLION DOLLARS PER DAY. This is a success, is it?
No wonder the healthcare system is broke. When we throw millions at one constituency, we starve another.
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