BC Conservative Leader John Rustad on Tuesday slammed the NDP for spreading misinformation about the Conservative Party’s healthcare plan, while reaffirming his commitment to increasing healthcare funding and putting patients first.
“The NDP have trotted out the oldest trick in their tired book: lying about healthcare funding,” Rustad said. “Under David Eby’s Bureaucrats-First healthcare model, British Columbians are already on edge about our fraying healthcare system. It’s gutter politics to spread fear about the health funding we all rely on – we deserve better.”
The Conservative Party’s Patients First healthcare plan focuses on increasing front-line healthcare service delivery and making the system more efficient, while increasing funding. Rustad laid out the Conservative Party’s commitment to:
* Increase the funding currently outlined in the Ministry of Health Service Plan – as already stated in his Patients First Healthcare platform.
* Removing the burden of bureaucratic bloat to ensure that healthcare funding is spent where it matters most—on front-line services, not on bureaucratic bloat or administrative inefficiencies. Germany has twice the population of Canada, but Canada has 10 times the number of healthcare administrators as Germany.
* Universal healthcare under a single-payer system that allows care to be delivered through both public and non-governmental facilities, ensuring British Columbians get the care they need, when they need it.
* Patients First Wait Time Guarantee provides for patients who exceed medically recommended wait time to access care at a pre-approved clinic out-of-province and be reimbursed according to a set fee schedule.
* Activity Based Funding means hospitals get paid when they treat patients. Business as usual block grants that pay hospitals regardless of how many or how few patients they treat must change. Universal European-style models produce better results. It’s time we adopt best practices to improve outcomes.
Rustad took aim at Premier David Eby’s promise to “hire back healthcare workers,” calling it a false promise. “The barriers for healthcare workers to return to their jobs under Eby’s government are so onerous that, in practice, it simply won’t happen. The NDP is offering empty promises that sound good in theory but fail miserably in execution. Like everything the NDP does.”
“Our Patients First healthcare plan will deliver better care, shorter wait times, and more resources for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who are working tirelessly to serve British Columbians,” Rustad said. “We will increase current funding levels, making sure it goes to patient care—not to administrative costs that only slow things down.”
Rustad also criticized the NDP’s resistance to common-sense reforms. He said; “The NDP don’t like talking about efficiency or patients-first reforms—because they’re the party of bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy. And every single day, that becomes more obvious to anyone who has to deal with our health system.”
He said the Conservative Party’s plan is about cutting red tape, prioritizing patients, and empowering healthcare professionals. “We have so many brilliant and hard-working healthcare professionals in BC who want to put patients first. Our plan is about giving them the tools and the resources they need to do just that. It’s time for common-sense reforms that free our healthcare system from unnecessary bureaucracy and put patients back at the center of care.”
