B.C.’s 2025 budget promises $4.2 billion more for health care over three years. The health-care system accounts for more than 40 per cent of the province’s operating expenses
B.C.’s 2025 budget promises $4.2 billion more for health care over the next three years, including $443 million to support connecting patients to family doctors and more than $870 million toward the opening and running of new facilities.
But it does not clearly address two prominent health-care issues: new funding for specialized health professionals, some of whom play a critical role in surgeries, and the expansion of involuntary care for individuals with mental health and addiction issues.
“We need to hire more lab technologists, perfusionists, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, social workers, radiation therapists, physiotherapists, CT, X-ray, MRI and PET technologists, and other specialized professionals. They are critical members of the health-care team, and without them, the health-care system just cannot deliver the services British Columbians need, especially in rural communities,” said Kane Tse, president of Health Sciences Association of B.C.
The association, which represents over 23,000 specialized health professionals in B.C., said it is concerned about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on B.C.’s economy and health-care system, which accounts for more than 40 per cent of the province’s operating expenses.
“Patients are already facing cancelled surgeries and long waits for test results and treatment. And the people providing this care are burning out, struggling with unsustainable workloads caused by unprecedented shortages across nearly all professions,” said Tse.
The health ministry tracks total operating hours as a performance metric. There is a goal of increasing the number of total operating hours from a 2016-17 baseline of 545,419 hours to a 2024-25 forecast of 665,500 and a target in 2026-27 of 703,900 hours.
However, the union recently said that more than 100 cardiac surgeries were cancelled at St. Paul’s Hospital alone in the first six months of 2024 because of staffing shortages.
“The B.C. government has to make some very tough choices under these circumstances, and it is encouraging to see that they have chosen to protect health care with a modest increase in funding,” said Tse.
“We look forward to working with them to target further investments in hiring more specialized health professionals so that we can reduce surgical cancellations and shorten wait times for care at this critical time.”
A major promise of the NDP in the lead-up to October’s provincial election was a promise to expand involuntary care.
It was unclear in the budget how much is being allocated for such services, which involve detaining individuals in a psychiatric facility if a doctor deems it necessary for their health and safety, as well as the safety of others.
This includes the establishment of treatment services at the Surrey pretrial jail and the Alouette jail.
There was $500 million set aside for treatment and recovery, but the budget was unclear whether this is simply meant to stabilize funding for services already being offered or to pay for any expansions.
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey deflected questions on the topic, referring to her technical team and saying the Ministry of Health is so large that it is sometimes hard to sort out how individual programs are being funded.
“I think what’s really important to understand is that there’s a lot of money that is already in play to build out treatment and recovery,” she said. “We have new spaces opening up regularly. There was a billion-dollar investment in 2023 and there is now $500 million added to that.”
There is new funding of $443 million over three years to strengthen primary care and to continue progress on connecting more people with family doctors and nurse practitioners. This includes an initiative, the Longitudinal Family Practice Payment Model, which was introduced in 2022 to attract and retain more family doctors.
“If it is just the continuation of investing (in this model), then what we can expect is sustaining what we have right now,” said Dr. Rita McCracken, a family physician and primary care researcher. “Lots of great connections can be in place for some people, but the model is antiquated. It’s a physician-centred, non-team model at a time when estimates are that between 400,000 to one million people in B.C. don’t have a family doctor.”
It’s tricky to pin down more exact estimates, said McCracken, but she said that range is concerning.
“What we need is a fundamental shift that allows for access … the system is old and you need to have team-based primary care that rationalizes care and allows for work by physicians, nurse-physicians and pharmacists.”
Dr. Charlene Lui, president of Doctors of B.C., which represents 16,000 physicians, said that while the association was disappointed there was no specific commitment to the recruiting and retention of specialist physicians in general, it was pleased to see continuing support for primary care and connecting family doctors to patients.
“There is a shortage of specialist physicians in general and in particular in rural communities where there is a shortage of ER and family physicians. We appreciate the challenging fiscal environment, but want to emphasize that access to quality health care is a top priority even with this (tariff) crisis in the province and country.”
— with file from Alec Lazenby