VICTORIA – Health-care
initiatives in today’s speech from the throne build on the input from the
Conversation on Health and will improve care for the long term with a new
emphasis on patient choice, enhanced access, quality, professional
opportunities, prevention and accountability.
“Our
goal is an efficient, effective, integrated health system that promotes the
health of all citizens, and provides high-quality patient care consistent with
the Canada Health Act,” said
Premier Gordon Campbell. “This obliges us to adopt new effective strategies
that at once improve the health of our citizens, improve access, quality and
choice, and protect our public health system for the long term.”
Amendments
to the Medicare Protection Act will define and enshrine the five principles of
the Canada Health Act – accessibility, universality, portability,
comprehensiveness and public administration – and also enshrine a sixth
principle of sustainability.
“The
Medical Services Plan will be required to be administered in a manner that is
fiscally sustainable and provides for British Columbians’ current health needs
without compromising future generations’ entitlement to similar MSP benefits,”
said Premier Campbell. “There will be one public – not
private – payer for services under the Canada
Health Act that will continue to deliver services through public and
private service providers.”
Initiatives to ensure quality health care:
- A new Health Profession Review Board will
ensure that all qualified health workers can fully and appropriately
utilize their training and skills and not be denied that right by
unnecessary credentialing and licensure restrictions.
- Creating a new BC Patient Safety Council to
enhance patient safety and promote transparency.
- Creating new Patient Care Quality Review
Boards for every health region.
- Improvements to the Public Health Act will help deal with public
health risks such infectious diseases and emergency health hazards.
Initiatives to improve access to health care:
- Committing to the upgrading and expansion
of BC Children’s Hospital.
- Major new investments in eHealth and
expansions to BC NurseLine, including a new “specialist referral service.”
- As of today, British Columbia will waive
the MSP wait period for all Canadian soldiers and their families who move
to B.C. from elsewhere in Canada.
- Authorizing and training nurses to deliver
a broader range of health services, such as suturing, ultrasounds, allergy
testing, local anesthesia and cardiac stress testing. Nurses will be able
to give medications for minor pain at triage while patients are waiting to
see a doctor, order lab work, blood tests and X-rays.
- Pharmacists will be permitted to authorize
routine prescription renewals, making it easier for patients with chronic
illnesses to manage their conditions.
- Ambulance paramedics will be authorized to
treat and release when appropriate.
- Naturopaths will be permitted to prescribe
medicinal therapies as appropriate and restrictions on their access to
medical labs for prescribed tests for patients will be removed.
- Midwives will be authorized to deliver a
broader range of services without a physician present.
- Teams of health professionals working together for patients will be
available 24 hours a day to provide clinically appropriate care that is
now only available in emergency rooms.
Initiatives to improve choice for patients:
- New tools and support services will be created to help home
caregivers and family members who are providing in-home care.
- New access for citizens to their health
records and medical information.
- Government will study the possibility of
establishing a new Independent Living Savings Account framework to allow
citizens to invest each year, up to age 75, in a tax-sheltered savings
account for home care support, assisted independent housing and supportive
housing options.
Initiatives to support prevention, research and sustainability in the
health-care system for future generations:
- Banning the use of trans fats in the
preparation of foods in schools, restaurants and food-service
establishments by 2010.
- Enacting new legislation to ban smoking in
vehicles when children are present.
- Establishing a new Centre for Brain Health
to help people avoid brain diseases and provide new treatment and
rehabilitation options.
- New investments in the Centre for Hip
Health and Musculoskeletal Research.
- The Hip Centre will work to prevent falls and hip fractures through
the development of early intervention programs for youth and seniors. It
will enhance the detection of osteoarthritis at an early stage and the
education of highly skilled scientists and clinicians.
- Establishing ActNow seniors’ community
parks throughout B.C.
- Creating new “Walking School Bus” and
“Bicycle Train” programs to encourage children to walk or bicycle to
school with adult supervision.
- New legislative authority will be sought to
ensure health professionals certified to practice in other Canadian
jurisdictions can practise in B.C., including foreign-trained doctors.
- Creating a new restricted licence that will
allow internationally trained physicians to practise in their specific
areas of qualification.
- Significantly expanding residency
positions, and introducing a new framework to allow Canadian citizens
trained outside Canada to find residencies and practise in B.C.
- Creating a three-year Bachelor of Nursing
Science program that will allow nurses to gain their degree a year sooner,
with ‘on-the-job’ training.
- Better co-ordination of patient services across the Lower Mainland
will reduce administration costs. Those revenues will be redirected to
patient services.
- Launching an innovation and integration
fund for the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health Authorities to help move
beyond “block funding” toward a new provincewide patient-centered funding
model. Health dollars will follow patients, wherever they are treated. It
will tie funding to performance and increased service levels in specific
priority areas, like emergency care and surgical backlogs.
- Amendments to the Medicare Protection Act will also codify a
commitment to building a public health-care system that is founded on the
values of individual choice, personal responsibility, innovation,
transparency and accountability.
- Integrated approaches to health human resources training and
recruitment, data collection, procurement and services will be
implemented.
- New investments will standardize information technology platforms
and provide new tools for better managing and optimizing health
expenditures.
- Expanded pediatric oncology research will offer new hope for cancer
prevention and treatment specifically focused on children.
“These
measures will improve the health of our citizens. They will improve access,
choice, quality, transparency and accountability in public health delivery.
They will make health care more sustainable,” said Premier Campbell.
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