4 Improving and protecting vital public services
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Increasing investments in healthcare
As the chart shows, total annual funding for healthcare will continue to soar over the next three years, by over 16 per cent. The Ministry of Health Services alone will see a three-year total funding increase of $4.8 billion. Health spending across government will be $8 billion more or 86 per cent higher in 2011/12 than the NDP’s last full year in office.
We’ve made a lot of improvements in health delivery over the last eight years www.gov.bc.ca/yourbc/patients. The Conference Board of Canada rates British Columbia’s healthcare system as the best in Canada. The year-long Conversation on Health has led to many improvements in health delivery, including a constructive new relationship with doctors, nurses and other health professionals that better serves patients’ needs.
We have the longest life expectancy in Canada, the best cancer and cardiac care, and the most generous Pharmacare system. ActNowBC is widely recognized as the most aggressive health promotion program in the country.
Surgical wait times have been dramatically reduced for hip and knee replacements and for cardiac surgery. Compared to the year 2000, the total number of annual surgeries is up 155 per cent for knee replacements and, up 70 per cent for hip replacements. Diagnostics have similarly been improved with a 163 per cent more MRI scans and 86 per cent more CT scans last year as compared to 2001.
