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The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that the best time to talk about health transfers in the provinces is after the pandemic is over, that is, now, Prime Minister John Horgan said in Saskatchewan on Friday.
“Well, we’re here today, the pandemic is waning, it’s becoming endemic, and now it’s time to have this conversation,” said Horgan, who attended the meeting of provincial and territorial leaders in western Canada in Regina. . “I hope today was the beginning of that commitment to come sit with us.”
It is the first face-to-face meeting of Western prime ministers since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and federal health transfers and post-COVID recovery top the agenda.
Last year, prime ministers called on Ottawa for a $ 28 billion increase in health transfers, bringing the federal quota from 22% to 35%. At the 2021 conference of prime ministers, which he attended virtually, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the aim is to increase transfers, but the conversation should take place once the pandemic is over.
Some 900,000 British Colombians do not have a family doctor, including about 100,000 on the South Island, and a recent report from the Medimap Clinic Directory Service said Victoria had the longest waits in Canada for non-appointment clinics. Some four non-appointment clinics have closed in the capital region since January, largely as a result of staffing problems. Provisional funding of $ 3.46 million was earmarked to keep five others open.
Primary and emergency care centers have been built as part of a broader plan to address primary care needs, but they lack critical staff.
At the UPCC in central Victoria, 45.66 full-time equivalent positions have been funded, but less than half have been filled —21.61. At the UPCC in Nanaimo, 16.83 FTE posts are funded, but only 5.73 are staffed.
BC liberal health critic Shirley Bond recently said during question period that less than two percent of people without a doctor have been linked to one through the UPCC.
The province has about 6,800 GPs trained, but only about 3,500 perform this function, according to GPs for better patient care in BC.
On Friday, Horgan blamed the primary care crisis largely on insufficient federal funding.
“We have a shortage of general practitioners because of funding problems. Is it just about money? Yes, it’s about money, because money translates into services for people.”
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