Health Care Budget

The BC Nurses' Union congratulates the minister of finance for balancing the 2015 budget. However, President Gayle Duteil is concerned about the future for seniors and others, if the government ignores growing health care challenges.

"As hospitals fill up to overcapacity, more elderly patients will be moved into long-term care. If residential care facilities aren't properly resourced, many of those patients will return to the hospital, with increasingly complex needs and health care problems."

Duteil says nurses are willing and able to provide more community care and take the pressure off acute care, provided the funds are in place to hire the appropriate number of nurses.

"All the evidence shows that patients who receive adequate professional nursing care are less likely to end up in emergency. They are happier and healthier at home or in residential care."

This year's health care budget has been increased by only 2.9 percent. The Conference Board of Canada reports that BC needs to increase the budget by 4.8 percent, or $2.3 billion, to maintain current service levels.

BC already spends less on health care than almost all provinces in Canada and has fewer regulated nurses per capita than the rest of the country.