A BC Conservative MLA says a recent ranking of the world’s best hospitals is proof that the provincial health-care system is on life support.
On Wednesday, Newsweek published a global hospital ratings, with one Canadian hospital claiming third place. But as the critic for rural and seniors care, Brennan Day, points out, B.C. doesn’t even crack the top 100.
Vancouver General Hospital placed 144th.
Evidently, Day says, B.C. has “got some problems.”
“Anybody that’s experienced the health-care system and been into an emergency room these days knows that our system is under a dramatic amount of pressure. So these findings just reflect what people already knew,” said Day.
He says the governing NDP has failed to address staffing shortages, but says that’s not unique to B.C.
“There is an acute shortage– across the globe — of health-care workers, and that’s certainly impacting B.C., but the government right now is not listening to the frontline workers who have direct, actionable suggestions to de-bottlenecking the system to get things flowing better — and they’re not being listened to by this government.”
Day added that several consecutive governments have been responsible for many of the long-term ills still affecting the health-care system in B.C.
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The province’s 2026 budget, he says, is not prepared to address those issues.
“The government is sticking band aids on things and hoping things improve by themselves, but they really need a big shakeup in terms of how things are run. They need to put the power back in the local health authorities to take care of their hiring, because it’s clear that the way we have it structured right now in British Columbia is not working.”
Day argues that the budget’s $2.8 billion in new funding for B.C.’s health-care system over three years will be “eaten up” by collective agreement changes and inflation.
“It effectively is a freeze for health-care spending in this province. To call it an increase is just patently absurd.”
As the world faces an aging population, he says the provincial government needs to engage stakeholders and employees who have ideas for solutions to health-care problems.
“It’s not just B.C. that is suffering, but certainly mismanagement is making our problem acutely worse.”
1130 NewsRadio has reached out to the B.C. Ministry of Health for comment.