May 11, 2005
The NDP is once again running away from its record in government. Now the NDP is ignoring its complete lack of investment in medical training through the 1990s. In comparison, the BC Liberals have made real progress in recruiting and training more doctors.
- The NDP platform does NOT add any new money to the health care budget. (Source: NDP Platform, p. 64)
- The NDP did not add a single new medical school seat when they were in government.
- The NDP Election Platform makes no mention of ANY health care training seats for ANY of the health professions. The NDP has absolutely no plan for increasing the number of doctors, nurses, speech pathologists, medical technicians, respiratory technologists, or any other health profession.
- When they were in government, the NDP did not add any additional residency spaces, and in fact only provided 4 spaces specifically for the International Medical Graduate (IMG) Program at St. Paul's Hospital. That has since been expanded to 6.
- The NDP Record on doctor recruitment and training:
- By 2001, BC was graduating about 128 doctors a year while at the same time losing 300 doctors a year to retirement, relocation or death.
- The NDP were driving doctors and specialists from the province: for example, in 2000, as many as 8 specialists from Victoria left the province to practice in the Persian Gulf.
- The BC Liberal Record on doctor recruitment and training:
- Medical school campuses created at UNBC in Prince George, and the University of Victoria. Another new medical school campus to be created at UBC-Okanagan in Kelowna.
- By 2008, there will be 896 doctors in training at any given time in B.C., up from 488 under the NDP. There will be 224 doctors graduating each year by 2008 compared to 128 under the NDP. With the recently announced new medical campus at UBC Okanagan, we will be graduating more than 60 additional doctors every year.
- The number of residencies for postgraduate medical students is expected to double from 128 in 2002/03 to 256 by 2010. Once candidates from B.C. and Canada have been considered, any of these new residency spaces may be available to an IMG – in fact, 4 of BC’s 5 unmatched positions recently went to IMGs.
- Funding for postgraduate medical education, including the IMG Program, is $50 million in 2004/05, up from $43 million in 2003/04. This funding is expected to increase to $53 million in 2005/06 to fund a further increase of 20 postgraduate entry-level positions.
- We have recently changed policy around the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program, which expedites the entry of skilled immigrants into the province, to make it easier for foreign-trained doctors to come to B.C.
