Patients to Benefit from $123 Million Funding Increase

July 06, 2004

Patients across British Columbia will benefit from a $123 million increase in funding to the province’s six health authorities in 2004/2005 to a total of approximately $6.2 billion.

Health Services Minister Colin Hansen made the funding announcement saying,

“Our government has made a strong commitment to ensure health care funding keeps pace with the needs of patients and is sustainable over the long term. In fact, since taking office we’ve increased the health budget by over $2 billion and will increase by an additional $1 billion by 2006/07.”

Minister Hansen said the additional funding will help to address increased demands in acute and home/community care services, growth in renal, cancer, transplant and cardiac services, expansion of vaccine programs and drug treatment for age-related macular degeneration.

As part of the BC Liberal government’s commitment to providing multi-year budgets to enable more effective planning, today health authorities received funding allocations for 2004/05 and planning allocations for 2005/06 to 2006/07. Base funding increases and total allocations for 2004/05 are:

  • Fraser Health: increase $44.8 million for a total of $1,418.3 million
  • Interior Health: increase $12.4 million for a total of $935.4 million
  • Northern Health: increase $5.2 million for a total of $325.5 million
  • Vancouver Coastal Health: increase $10 million for a total of $1,633.2 million
  • Vancouver Island Health: increase $11.8 million for a total of $1,012.8 million
  • Provincial Health Services: increase $38.9 million for a total of $874.2 million

Funding allocations to health authorities were included in the 2004-05 budget of $10.706 billion for the Ministry of Health Services. The increase includes $148 million in additional federal funding from the Health Accord that is being fully directed to patients.

The allocations to health authorities for acute care, home and community care are determined using a population-needs-based formula that considers factors such as demographics, patient flow, complexity of cases and remoteness. Hansen noted the significant shift in the Fraser

Health Authority reflects the fact it is the province’s largest and fastest growing health authority. By 2007, Fraser Health is expected to experience more than half (54%) of the province's population increase, growing by about 108,000 people.

In addition to operating funding, health authorities have access to an additional $258 million for capital equipment, asset acquisitions and major renovation projects.
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