NANAIMO — Our public healthcare system is in crisis, and whoever forms the next federal government must take steps to address it.
Those calls were made by Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and Hospital Employees Union (HEU) reps during a Monday, April 14 news conference outside Nanaimo hospital, voicing demands for a strong and properly funded public health system.
Barb Nederpel, president of the HEU which represents 60,000 B.C. healthcare workers, told the gathering a universal public healthcare system is a fundamental part of Canadian identity and it needs help.
“This is a serious problem that existed before COVID but has only gotten worse simply because there is an increasing prevalence of violence. There is an increase in injury rate that’s happening amongst healthcare workers. There’s an increase in the number of folks retiring. We’re losing healthcare workers faster than we can bring them in, and two out of five workers we know are planning on leaving the system in the next three years.”
Nederpel said staff shortages are of particular concern, which she said are negatively impacting patient care.
Another issue of great concern, according to Nederpel, is the creeping in of privatization, with long-term care where the issue is current the most prominent.
Nederpel said healthcare workers moving from the public to a private system does nothing to address understaffing.
She stated the Alberta government walked back the privatization of lab services due to underperformance.
“There’s no evidence that any of these privatized services in the country have ever done anything good… and unfortunately, what ends up happening is you’re adding profit on top of that, and that becomes the key issue at the end of the day, is the bottom line.”
Nederpel said long-term care needs to be covered under the Canada Health Act to ensure standardized care across the country.
A Monday morning press conference outside NRGH had to pause momentarily for the arrival of a BC air ambulance. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)CLC president Bea Bruske said while she hasn’t heard much from federal leaders on the campaign trail so far regarding healthcare, she’s heard from voters and healthcare workers who’ve said: “It’s in dire need of attention.”
“We see facilities crumbling, we see the health human resource crisis with not enough staff ever, no matter what position you’re in, no matter if you are working in healthcare as a support worker, whether you’re a professional technical worker, whether you’re a nurse or a doctor, there’s just not enough hands to go around.”
What they want is a commitment from federal leaders to strengthen the public healthcare system, with an aging population requiring more care as time goes on.
Bruske said recent federal initiatives like the expansion of the national Pharamcare and dental programs are good starts, but there are still gaps in care requiring immediate attention.
“It is so fantastic that we have diabetes medication and supplies and birth control covered, but we need to make sure the mom, who is a single parent, can afford the inhaler for their kid plus the groceries they need to buy this week, and for right now, that is a struggle for many many workers.”
While provincial governments in Canada largely control the healthcare system, Bruske said the federal government needs to ensure any healthcare funding they provide has strings attached to ensure it goes to where it needs to.
Things like mental health, early childhood care, and ensuring seniors and those who are retired can still get the care they need, regardless of their personal circumstances, Bruske told the news conference.
“Once every nine minutes someone shows up in an emergency room with a dental emergency that could have been avoided had they had preventative care. But too many workers don’t have a healthcare benefit plan through their workplace or are retired and don’t have that kind of a benefit plan.”
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