BC NDP

Vote a rejection of B.C. Liberal health care cutbacks: NDP

MISSION – Health Minister Kevin Falcon needs to accept the motion that Mission city council passed last night for the community to keep its twenty-four hour emergency room and other critical hospital services, said New Democrats today. 

"Yesterday, Mission city council rejected Fraser Health Authority’s proposal that Mission Memorial Hospital effectively choose between closing the ER at night, which would leave Mission without a 24-hour emergency room, or cut $390,000 in other programs because of its budget shortfall. The council instead voted in favour of a motion that the hospital’s emergency room and other programs remain intact," said New Democrat health critic Adrian Dix.

Last evening, FHA discussed reducing services at Mission Memorial Hospital at the local council meeting.  “The Mission council and community rejected FHA’s proposals, recognizing that these scenarios were not based on sound policy that takes into account a growing population and existing health care gaps,” said Dix.

FHA’s own data confirms that emergency services need to be improved, not decreased, in the region. This spring, the health authority reported that both the Mission and Abbotsford ERs are not meeting the benchmark to admit 80 per cent of patients within 10 hours, and that only 48 per cent of Mission ER patients are getting a bed within this time span. The Abbotsford ER is even more congested, with 43 per cent of its patients being admitted within 10 hours.

Shortly after the spring election, news surfaced that the government was considering reducing services at MMH’s ER as part of its plan to deal with a $160 million funding gap.

"The B.C. Liberals promised during the election that there would not be any cuts to patient services, but now that the election is over local communities are learning the harsh truth," said Sue Hammell, New Democrat deputy health critic and MLA for Surrey-Green Timbers. 

Since 2002, the B.C. Liberals have targeted health care services in Mission. “MMH has been downgraded repeatedly since the B.C. Liberals took power,” said Dix. “It went from being an acute care hospital to sub-acute in 2002, losing 32 beds in the process. It has lost its ICU and maternity ward. And at a time when Mission’s population is expected to grow by 60 per cent, it stands to lose a full-scale emergency ward.”

Meanwhile, over these past months, local B.C. Liberal MLAs have insisted that the Mission ER was safe from cutbacks.

Michael Sather, New Democrat MLA for Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows said that “the local community deserves MLAs who will exert their energy towards protecting 24 hour emergency care in Mission, not trying to mislead the community in an attempt to cover up for B.C. Liberal broken promises."

Carole James and the New Democrats have been holding the B.C. Liberals accountable for breaking their word on the HST, and for backtracking on their election promises to protect health care, education, and other vital services.