CONSTRUCTION of Surrey’s second hospital is more than halfway complete, but BC Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson could not say whether his party supports it when asked at a media availability on Wednesday. After he said the project was still under consideration for the BC Conservative platform, his handler ended the interview before reporters could ask a follow-up question.
“Surrey families deserve a leader who knows what is happening in our community. This hospital is more than halfway built, yet Lorne Doerkson could not say whether he supports it or frankly whether he knew it was under construction,” said BC NDP Surrey Fleetwood candidate Jagrup Brar. “Maybe he has a hard time keeping up because his friends sold the public land for the previously planned hospital when they were in government and left Surrey families behind. Doerkson’s lack of commitment raises a fair question: would the Conservatives leave Surrey behind again?”
The BC NDP is building a new medical school at SFU Surrey, a second Surrey hospital and BC Cancer Centre, and have hired 200 more doctors and 360 more nurses at Surrey Memorial in the last two years. They also opened a new cardiac catheterization lab and kidney dialysis service, along with three new urgent primary care centres in Surrey.
They are also investing more than $33 million in improvements coming at Surrey Memorial – where a new triage team will assess patients sooner, and a new emergency satellite centre will help people with less urgent needs get care faster, including lab tests and X-rays. The hospital is also replacing an older CT scanner and adding a second one. Those scanners will support emergency, trauma, stroke and inpatient care.
“Our government has invested over $12 billion in major investments in Surrey—more than in any other community in B.C. Surrey families waited too long for the services and infrastructure our growing community needs. We are building the hospital, training doctors here, and adding schools and transit. We cannot afford Conservative cuts that put health care and education at risk,” said Brar.
The Conservatives have said that healthcare and education would take the “brunt,” of their “aggressive” cuts to the provincial budget, he noted.
Transcript of Doersken’s response during the media availability:
Channel Punjabi: There is a provincial campaign promoting this Surrey hospital that we will have … what is your stance on Surrey’s hospital project and health care solutions?
Lorne Doerkson: What I will say on the Surrey Hospital is that we’re contemplating all of that for our platform rollout and we will have definitely information going forward on that.
Moderator: And that concludes today’s press conference. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today.
