Punishing residents in the interior, is NOT a decision that will help BC families

News has been released that the Interior Health Authority (IHA) will end up with less funding this year … in fact the amount is substantial … three point four million dollars.

The reason??  

Management of the Interior Health Authority has been unable to ensure hospitals, in its jurisdiction, provide needed patient service, within a reasonable amount of time, for hip, knee and cataract surgeries.

I think most people would agree it should be the job of those in management, to ensure that health care services are provided with no long or undue delays.   

If management is unable to ensure this happens, then it should be THEIR salaries that get clawed back, by the Health Ministry.

Saying Interior Health won’t get its re-earnable (their wording) ... or 10% bonus of 3.4 million dollars ... is simply word play.  That money is needed in the system.  Not providing it will only create even more delays in the delivery of hip, knee and cataract surgeries being provided to the people who need and require them.  

These are real people -- not numbers and statistics.

AGAIN … not providing funding for the system itself, will only ensure that even less health care services will be provided to residents in the BC Interior. That my friends, is an insult to the people who reside within the boundaries of IHA.

A system that takes away needed funding for proper patient care is a system that is fatally flawed. 

It is one that the BC Liberal government, and Health Minister Michael de Jong, must change. 

Punishing residents in the interior, by not providing this funding to the health care budget of IHA, is NOT a decision that will help BC families; which Christy Clark claims to care so much about.

Rather than punishing interior residents, the Ministry of Health must instead find a better way of ensuring health care is provided; by those they have hired to manage the system and its resources.  If they are unable to do so, then they are the ones who should be made to play the price – not those needing health services.

What this current government should be doing, is making a commitment to British Columbians they will develop objectives and indicators to assess how effectively (or not) health care is being delivered, and then commit to seeing changes implemented where they are required.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.