Gordon Campbell:

“It’s time to put patient care first. To do that, we must renew public health care, through better management, adequate funding, proper staffing, and sound strategic planning.”

• We want our public health care system to guarantee all patients the care they need, where they live and when they need it.

• We are going to put people’s needs at the centre of health care again.

• The provincial government has an obligation to ensure that all British Columbians get the level and quality of care that they are entitled to under the Canada Health Act. That means all citizens should have a comprehensive, publicly administered health care system that ensures high quality, timely health services are universally available and accessible to all throughout the province. We are going to establish a Rural and Remote Health Initiative to ensure all families get the care they need, where they live, when they need it. Fund health regions at a level necessary to meet the needs of the people who live there, regardless of where a service is provided.

• Give ambulance attendants better access to training and better life-support and communications equipment needed to capitalize on those skills.

• Ensure that appointees to regional health boards are representative of their communities’ needs and accountable for their performance in meeting provincial health standards.

• Provide better home support and home care services.

• Ensure that BC health care is universal, accessible, portable, comprehensive and publicly administered, consistent with the five principles of the Canada Health Act. Fulfill BC’s obligations under the Canada Health Act to properly fund and provide access to all medically necessary services.

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The five criteria of the Canada Health Act guiding the provincial public health insurance plans are:

• Public Administration: The public health insurance plan must be managed in a public, not-for-profit fashion.

• Comprehensiveness: All residents must be covered for “medically necessary” health services.

• Universality: All residents must be covered by the public insurance plan on uniform terms and conditions.

• Portability: All residents must be covered by their public plan, wherever they are treated in Canada.

• Accessibility: All residents must have access to insured health care services on uniform terms and conditions without direct or indirect financial charges, or discrimination based on age, health status or financial circumstances.

Read more from the Council of Canadians

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Canada Health Act:

Extra-billing