Positive, public solutions

(.pdf version) The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the extent to which our individual health is dependent on the health of everyone in our community. Public healthcare is our best defense against this crisis and others like it. However, our ability to endure crises and care for each other has been eroded through decades of austerity budgets, privatization and inadequate planning. Even during "normal times," the health care system is at capacity.…Read More

BC Health Coalition urges all parties to adopt the Advisory Committee's recommendations Vancouver ­– The BC Health Coalition is celebrating the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare's recommendation to create a universal public pharmacare program.…Read More

Counsel for Attorney General of Canada opens with argument that striking down public health care law would “turn back the clock” on health care in Canada, lead to major health inequality April 16, 2019 (Vancouver) For the first time since the trial began in 2016, the BC Supreme Court will hear from defendants and intervenors in the constitutional challenge to Canadian public health care launched by private, for-profit clinic CEO Brian Day.…Read More

Editor: After years of government inaction on wait times for surgeries, British Columbians are starting to see some progress. One year ago, Premier John Horgan announced the province’s surgical strategy to shorten wait times.  The strategy includes steps the BC Health Coalition has been calling for, including putting our existing operating rooms to better use, reorganizing wait lists to be more efficient, and investing funding in priority surgeries. …Read More

Health Minister Adrian Dix said the purchase will boost Fraser Health's MRI capacities and reduce wait times for patients. CHERYL CHAN September 25, 2018 The B.C. government is buying two privately owned MRI clinics in the Fraser Valley in a bid to expand capacity and reduce waiting times in the public system. On Monday, Health Minister Adrian Dix announced Fraser Health will purchase Surrey MRI and Fraser Valley MRI Clinic in Abbotsford effective Oct. 1.…Read More

BC Health Coalition celebrates investments in Pharmacare and the elimination of MSP fees…Read More

Surrey- The BC Health Coalition is in Surrey today to welcome the Minister of Health’s announcement that the province is purchasing two private, for-profit MRI clinics in order to make use of them in the public system.…Read More

Team-based strategy will ensure faster and more appropriate care For immediate release…Read More

Rick Turner and Edith MacHattie/Vancouver Sun (click HERE for article) B.C. lags behind much of the country when it comes to MRI wait times, with as many as one in 10 patients waiting more than 200 days for a scan. That is why the province's recent action to increase public MRI capacity to cut waiting times is welcome.…Read More