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UPDATES: Doctor questions BC's spending priorities
VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980)

3/8/2013

Ongoing overcrowding at hospitals across British Columbia again have emergency room doctors questioning the priorities of the provincial government.


Doctor David Haughton, who's the President of the BC Medical Association's Emergency Medicine section, admits it's frustrating to see money being spent on hosting next month's Times of India Film Awards and next year's Grey Cup.
 
"Well, yeah, and the 16-million to advertise what wonderful job they're doing with the jobs. I think the last time we had the campaign, we were watching the 453-million dollar new roof of the coliseum or  BC Place. So, yeah, it is a bit frustrating."

Speaking with CKNW's Simi Sara, Haughton, who works at BC Children's Hospital,  says emergency room doctors have been forced into publicly campaigning for urgent improvements because pleas being made behind closed doors are not being answered.

Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid, who's also a doctor and former BCMA President, says she understands Haughton's frustrations, but she believes spending money promoting events like the Grey Cup will boost the overall economy.

"There are initiatives that happen outside of the Ministry of Health that we believe have significant economic benefit. That helps us to fund health care. I really don't agree with the notion that every penny of money that's available should all go into the health care system."

As for ongoing demands to reduce overcrowding and other problems, MacDiarmid says more than 400-million dollars has been spent improving emergency wards across the province and funding for community care has been boosted to prevent so-called "bed blockers".

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  • 25
  1. AldinaI posted on 03/08/2013 03:31 PM
    The Liberals have their spending priorities......... in all the wrong places. I could not agree more with Haughton.
    1. Ron_26 posted on 03/08/2013 05:10 PM
      @AldinaI I just checked out todays CKNW poll which puts almost 70% of the responders wanting their tax dollars to go to a sports celebration. Do you still think it's just the liberals that have wrong priorities? It seems we're all ding-bats!
    show more replies
  2. 4645 posted on 03/08/2013 03:31 PM
    Perhaps there is a need for new money into the health system but first there needs to be a serious look into how health care is administered here in BC. Having a relative move through the system for over the last year and seeing the waste, the doubling and tripling of the same work, showing up at a specialist after 4 months of waiting only to find the doctor neglected to request the files and be told to come back in a month.

    Let's have the doctors and administrator works on efficiencies within the system to both improve patient care and patient outcome along with control of waste.
  3. cM_8711 posted on 03/08/2013 04:39 PM
    Could not agree more with the good Dr..
    600 million to build a roof for the stadium when it was budgeted for 100!
    Florida built a complete stadium with retractable roof for 600 million?
    Not only are the priorities messed up but so is the cost.
    Follow the money and you'll see who made it big on this deal.
    1. Ron_26 posted on 03/08/2013 04:58 PM
      @cM_8711 Don't kid yourself. The "good doctor" is not all that altruistic. He's merely taking advantage of the political situation of the day.
      Healthcare and education rightly get a ton of money, but there's still only one tax payer. Surely money isn't the only way to fix his problems.
    2. ianm_0078 posted on 03/08/2013 08:03 PM
      @cM_8711 Please learn the facts about BC Place before you repeat Lefty lies. It was a complete overhaul, new seats, new support work and yes, a new retractable roof. Have you been in the new Stadium it is wonderful. Thousands of people attend BC Lions games. Whitecaps, the 2 Homeshows, the Car show and Boat Show. If Moonbeam wants Vancouver to be a great City, the Lower Mainland needs a venue like BC Place. To build a new Stadium would have cost over $1 billion. Florida built their new Stadium years ago and I am sure the labour rates were much lower than BC.
      Healthcare gets billions each year, so which program do you suggest cutting to put more into healthcare? How about the homeless shelters...or welfare, or WCB, or ??? Each Ministry gets a budget and it is their job not to over spend, just like our personal finances. We have some real tough decisions coming up......where do we cut to put more into healthcare??
    show more replies
  4. TonyB_0924 posted on 03/08/2013 04:47 PM
    Funny are schools, HOSPITALS and other crown institutions have paid out 25 million dollars from 2009 to buy carbon credits under the BC Liberals carbon tax scam and that money come there operating budgets no wonder are hospitals, schools and so on are in the state there in… but O well a lot of buddies of the BC Liberals are getting fat from it…
  5. cM_8711 posted on 03/08/2013 09:01 PM
    How about starting the rediversion of funds with the 11 million in the Bollywood show, 25 million telus was willing to pay for it's name on the stadium, 15 million in Govt. ads telling us how wonderful the Liberals are,
    etc. I've been in B.C. place stadium as a season ticket holder and I've been in emergency wards and I know where that money should go. I've talked to Dr.'s and Surgeons and they can't get operating time due to staff shortages from lack of funding. Interesting to note that if you pay $5000 for the operation at a private clinic in B.C....you're in next week.
    Sorry Lions and Cappers but if it came to either reducing wait tiime for an active teenager to get artho surgery or a nice dry seat in the dome with a 12 buck beer, I'm going with the Dr.
    Marlins stadium - Public money covered more than 80 percent of the $634 million stadium and parking garage construction deal. Opened in March 2012. A whole stadium and parking garage and their roof opens all the way.
    Don't get bamboozled by Corp. dribble about "labour costs" because it's not the workers making the obscene profits off this upgrade.
  6. AnneH_4 posted on 03/08/2013 11:05 PM
    This is not an easy problem to solve and dont kid yourselves, BC is not alone in this matter.

    First of all there are too many middle managers making huge salaries with gold plated benefits.....They are taking up a huge amount of the budget - and I wonder what they all do for their remuneration

    So front line workers suffer so that the high priced help can continue building their kingdoms.

    Dont forget Big Pharma - now that we are a drug driven society wholly dependent upon expensive drugs it is no wonder we cannot handle a budget. SO a Dr prescribes one drug - watch out for the side effects - and another is prescribed to counter the first drug and on it goes - I know a senior who is on 22 pills a day! And there are the kickbacks to Doctors and those in admin and Health Canada ---getting quite terrible isnt it

    Then we have many Canadians who clog the system even going to emergency when all they have is a flu or something non urgent

    There is absolutely no preventive health care encouraged except in the alternative system but the Docs want the alternative types gone because they just drain their bottom line.

    There are of course many more problems so you have to wonder where to start to fix it......

    One thing is for sure - we should all stop complaining and offer solutions - the elected officials should be the first to do so ----and there is no need for years of studies......just do it
    1. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/09/2013 08:40 PM
      @AnneH_4 My doctor is from South Africa. His biggest problem is patients knowing they are allowed to leave without a prescription in their little fist.
      Preventative medicine, herbal medicine, naturopathic medicine all alleve stress from the system. These should be reinforced and supported properly.
      Tests ordered by one doctor aren't necessarily available to the next doctors you see. They should be.
      People showing up in emergency wards unnecessarily add to these waiting times, because they have to wait until the doctor has time for them. Saving a life, and stabilizing a patient comes before minor things that don't really need a doctor. Every serious case that comes in, pushes the bandaid brigade back a little further. Average wait times are a little deceiving because of this.
      I want to see waiting times for serious cases that can't be stabilized without the doctor taking action.
    show more replies
  7. DavidSB posted on 03/09/2013 03:08 AM
    When the doctors can prove to me how every penny of my tax dollars are spent on hospitals and the like then maybe I'll be more interested in throwing more of my tax dollars down that black hole money pit. Until full cost accounting comes to the medical system I will not want another of my dollars risked on it
  8. howards_1187 posted on 03/09/2013 06:24 AM
    I know at least one sergeon who has gone into cosmetic surgery because of the BC goverments clawback of Doctors fees. Whithdrew from Delta Hopital because it was not a safe place for his patients. It is because of the lack of longterm beds for elderly clogging up the heathcare system.
    1. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/09/2013 08:31 PM
      @howards_1187 not to mention that vain people pay a lot better than sick people.
  9. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/09/2013 09:49 AM
    A few concerns I have about the healthcare system.
    Tests should be available online to any doctor you are seeing, not just the one that asked for them.
    Patients that aren't in an emergency situation, shouldn't be clogging up the emergency ward.

    More extended care beds should be made available in schools that are being closed for lack of students.
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