The Provincial Health Services Authority was shaken up on Monday, with a Health Minister Josie Osborne revealing a string of executive moves. Read More
B.C. Ministry of Health replaces PHSA board and appoints an interim CEO
The move comes amid a series of emergency room closures that have spread from rural communities to parts of the Lower Mainland
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B.C. is reviewing health authority spending to ensure resources go to “critical patient services” and to minimize wasteful administrative costs.
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Health Minister Josie Osborne said Monday that the government wants to ensure that all authorities are best positioned to tackle the “complex challenges” facing the health care system.
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“There is no doubt that the health-care system is under a lot of strain right now,” she told reporters in Victoria on Monday.
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“These reviews will be undertaken in a very thoughtful, structured way, with input from health-care providers so that we can do the best job possible, making the best use of all resources to deliver health care for British Columbians.”
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The move comes amid a series of emergency room closures that have spread from rural communities to parts of the Lower Mainland.
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B.C. Nurses Union vice-president Tristan Newby said the organization welcomed a review of the health system.
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Newby, a registered nurse, said he couldn’t remember when B.C. last did a “holistic, system-wide assessment.”
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“I think with any bureaucratic system, it’s prudent to do systematic reviews periodically, and we just haven’t seen that, and I’m confident that we will be able to see some efficiencies identified throughout this review,” he said Monday.
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“We’re at a point now that we really need that, especially in the context of rolling out minimum nurse-patient ratios and a global nursing shortage.”
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Newby said he expected the nurses union to play “an advisory role” in the reviews.
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The ministry said in a news release that the Provincial Health Services Authority is the first to undergo the review because of its provincewide role across the health system.
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That includes services through B.C. Cancer, B.C. Children’s Hospital, B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre, B.C. Emergency Health Services, B.C. Mental Health and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
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Osborne said every health authority in the province will be reviewed and that the government is committed to ensuring health authorities are functioning as effectively and efficiently as possible.
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“We want to obviously take a very close look at administrative costs and make sure that the maximum use of dollars is going to the front line and delivering the services that British Columbians are counting on,” she told reporters.