British Columbia 2017 Election Campaign

Dear Ms. Oliver,

Thank you for your letter. If John Horgan and the BC NDP is elected to government, we welcome the opportunity to meet and work with the CCSN on enhancing the continuum of care for cancer survivors in the province.

Please accept the detailed survey response below on behalf of all BC New Democrat candidates in the 2017 provincial election.

For more information on our platform, please visit www.bcndp.ca/platform.

Thank you.

***

In relation to your questions regarding health care delivery:

Central to our health care transformation agenda is ensuring access to timely, quality comprehensive primary care. We plan to establish Urgent Family Care Centres in urban and rural areas that will deliver patient care through multi disciplinary teams comprised of doctors, nurses, nurse practioners, dieticians, occupational and physical therapists, mental health and addictions treatment professionals, and other health professionals. This team based care model will provide patients with chronic conditions like cancer with specialized and continuous care and support through the different stages of recovery.

Our other strategic investments in health care include expanding the hours and scope of home care so patients can live and recover at home. Furthermore, team members from Urgent Family Care Centres will also provide home visits to their patients when appropriate.

We will continue working with stakeholders to improve access to specialized programs for cancer detection, treatment and recovery. For example, in recent years our health critic Judy Darcy supported survivors in their advocacy for a childhood cancer survivor clinic. The New Democrats also championed for years a BC wide colorectal cancer screening program – an idea that the Liberals adopted without heeding the advice to properly resource it to prevent excess wait times. If elected we will ensure the program has sufficient capacity to ensure patients do not wait for months for testing in their own communities.

We will expand and replicate initiatives, best practices that have a track record of reducing surgical wait times. We will also deliver the best outcomes and most timely care for patients through province-wide coordination, management of wait lists.

In relation to your questions regarding access to drug treatments:

The BC NDP champions independent evidence based pharmaceutical policy and formulary decisions that ensure the treatments that work the best, not the ones that are most promoted and higher in price, are prescribed and covered under the public drug plan. This approach of emphasizing treatment efficacy enables greater patient coverage as it protects the health care system from undue costs.

We also champion leveraging government’s purchasing position to secure lower drug prices for the benefit of patients and the public health care system. Savings on prices frees up resources for broader treatment coverage. On this note, we plan to collaborate with other provinces and the federal government on drug price negotiations and bulk purchasing medication. We also intend to work with the federal government towards a national pharmacare program that can significantly improve coverage and lower costs.

Response: 

Dear Ms. Oliver,
Thank you for your letter. If John Horgan and the BC NDP is elected to government, we welcome the opportunity to meet and work with the CCSN on enhancing the continuum of care for cancer survivors in the province.
Please accept the detailed survey response below on behalf of all BC New Democrat candidates in the 2017 provincial election.
For more information on our platform, please visit www.bcndp.ca/platform.
In relation to your questions regarding health care delivery:

Central to our health care transformation agenda is ensuring access to timely, quality comprehensive primary care. We plan to establish Urgent Family Care Centres in urban and rural areas that will deliver patient care through multi disciplinary teams comprised of doctors, nurses, nurse practioners, dieticians, occupational and physical therapists, mental health and addictions treatment professionals, and other health professionals. This team based care model will provide patients with chronic conditions like cancer with specialized and continuous care and support through the different stages of recovery.

Our other strategic investments in health care include expanding the hours and scope of home care so patients can live and recover at home. Furthermore, team members from Urgent Family Care Centres will also provide home visits to their patients when appropriate.

We will continue working with stakeholders to improve access to specialized programs for cancer detection, treatment and recovery. For example, in recent years our health critic Judy Darcy supported survivors in their advocacy for a childhood cancer survivor clinic. The New Democrats also championed for years a BC wide colorectal cancer screening program – an idea that the Liberals adopted without heeding the advice to properly resource it to prevent excess wait times. If elected we will ensure the program has sufficient capacity to ensure patients do not wait for months for testing in their own communities.

We will expand and replicate initiatives, best practices that have a track record of reducing surgical wait times. We will also deliver the best outcomes and most timely care for patients through province-wide coordination, management of wait lists.

In relation to your questions regarding access to drug treatments:

The BC NDP champions independent evidence based pharmaceutical policy and formulary decisions that ensure the treatments that work the best, not the ones that are most promoted and higher in price, are prescribed and covered under the public drug plan. This approach of emphasizing treatment efficacy enables greater patient coverage as it protects the health care system from undue costs.

We also champion leveraging government’s purchasing position to secure lower drug prices for the benefit of patients and the public health care system. Savings on prices frees up resources for broader treatment coverage. On this note, we plan to collaborate with other provinces and the federal government on drug price negotiations and bulk purchasing medication. We also intend to work with the federal government towards a national pharmacare program that can significantly improve coverage and lower costs.

Thank you.

Response: 

Hi Katie,

I am sorry for the late response to your email. The Leonard Krog campaign has been extremely busy. With respect to your questions I can provide the following information, which our central campaign has provided to other inquiries regarding Cancer Care.

In relation to your questions regarding health care delivery:

Central to our health care transformation agenda is ensuring access to timely, quality comprehensive primary care. We plan to establish Urgent Family Care Centres in urban and rural areas that will deliver patient care through multi disciplinary teams comprised of doctors, nurses, nurse practioners, dieticians, occupational and physical therapists, mental health and addictions treatment professionals, and other health professionals. This team based care model will provide patients with chronic conditions like cancer with specialized and continuous care and support through the different stages of recovery.

Our other strategic investments in health care include expanding the hours and scope of home care so patients can live and recover at home. Furthermore, team members from Urgent Family Care Centres will also provide home visits to their patients when appropriate.

We will continue working with stakeholders to improve access to specialized programs for cancer detection, treatment and recovery. For example, in recent years our health critic Judy Darcy supported survivors in their advocacy for a childhood cancer survivor clinic. The New Democrats also championed for years a BC wide colorectal cancer screening program – an idea that the Liberals adopted without heeding the advice to properly resource it to prevent excess wait times. If elected we will ensure the program has sufficient capacity to ensure patients do not wait for months for testing in their own communities.

We will expand and replicate initiatives, best practices that have a track record of reducing surgical wait times. We will also deliver the best outcomes and most timely care for patients through province-wide coordination, management of wait lists.

In relation to your questions regarding access to drug treatments:

The BC NDP champions independent evidence based pharmaceutical policy and formulary decisions that ensure the treatments that work the best, not the ones that are most promoted and higher in price, are prescribed and covered under the public drug plan. This approach of emphasizing treatment efficacy enables greater patient coverage as it protects the health care system from undue costs.

We also champion leveraging government’s purchasing position to secure lower drug prices for the benefit of patients and the public health care system. Savings on prices frees up resources for broader treatment coverage. On this note, we plan to collaborate with other provinces and the federal government on drug price negotiations and bulk purchasing medication. We also intend to work with the federal government towards a national pharmacare program that can significantly improve coverage and lower costs.

We recognize the critical importance of all of your work and understand the need to have your questions answered.
I along with my BC NDP colleagues welcome the opportunity to meet and work with the CCSN on enhancing the continuum of care for cancer survivors in the province.
Our platform can be seen at BCNDP.ca/platform

Kindest Regards,

Leonard Krog, Candidate
Nanaimo, BC

Response: 

Hi Kati,

Thanks for the questions.

I think you will find all the information you’re looking for in our health platform. Here’s a link: http://www.bcgreens.ca/health

Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.

Response: 

Hello Kati,

I will do everything possible to help cure cancer. I , like most every British Colombian has been personally affected by this disease.

I choose not to paraphrase our stand on the issue but ask you to view my platform at bcgreens.ca/swr

Thank you

Question 1:

In a poll conducted by Innovative Research Group in August of 2016, healthcare is the number three issue (behind housing and the economy, and just in front of education) on the minds of BC voters.

If elected:

A) How will your government improve the delivery of cancer care and other healthcare services in BC?

A B.C. Green government will improve cancer care and other healthcare services by integrating healthcare delivery, improving primary care, and increasing multi-disciplinary service. We will work to provide adequate access to health care in both rural and urban communities and preserve universal single-tier health care.

B) Will your government restructure healthcare delivery, and if so, how?

Yes. We will increase the emphasis of healthcare spending on prevention. The challenge with this approach is how to make the transition, as the benefits of illness prevention are seen in the future, while people need treatment now. We will begin with better access to GPs, the implementation of integrated care, and action to reduce waitlists.

C) How will your government ensure that cancer patients receive the services they need, including home care, financial assistance during recovery and for long-term side effects of cancer and/or treatment?

A B.C. Green government will offer financial assistance to cover the costs of patients during recovery and treatment, as well as for home care. We will pay for this through savings on prescription drugs, more efficient healthcare delivery and by utilizing more non-physician healthcare professionals such as nurse practitioners.

D) What will your government do to better the wait time for people who require an operation?

One of the first actions of a B.C. Green government will be to implement a task force to look at how the wait times for surgery can be reduced. It takes more than money to address surgical wait times. Some of the factors affecting these are hospital bed shortages due to lack of community supports for frail seniors; inadequate funding so that hospital operating rooms are not regularly staffed, and hours cannot be extended when needed; lack of a centralized management system for waitlists; and out-dated information systems. The task force will tackle all of these.

Question 2:

A key element of providing timely treatment for cancer patients is ensuring that they have access to the medications they need at the time they need them. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in British Columbia.

A) If elected, will your government commit to increasing the number of new cancer and other drugs approved for public reimbursement so that all British Columbians have timely access to the drugs they need, and if so, how will this be accomplished?

A B.C. Green government will work to implement an essential drugs program that will provide an evidence-based, integrated plan that will ensure British Columbians can get the essential pharmaceutical drugs they require in order to treat their illnesses.

B) If elected to government will you undertake negotiations leading to regional collaboration to ensure timely patient access to cancer drugs?

A B.C. Green government would be committed to developing an integrated model of healthcare that would end unequal access to cancer drugs. There have been many different models of care introduced during the last decade in an attempt to move toward integrated care, including regionalization of the B.C. health care system. However, regionalization has not really addressed the problem of fragmented care, where one region on the island, such as the Greater Victoria area, for example, has 22 oncologists, while the central Nanaimo area has none.

Question 3:

A study published from the University of British Columbia says that one in 12 Canadians (aged 55 and older) were the second most likely among comparable countries to stop filling their prescriptions in 2014 because of cost.

A) If elected to government, what will your party do to make prescription medications more affordable?

The cost of prescription drugs prevents too many British Columbians from receiving effective treatment for their illnesses. When these conditions go untreated, it becomes much costlier to deal with the consequences. Our essential drugs program will reduce the cost of prescription drugs and ensure that drug costs are not an obstacle to treatment.

B) Why is there such a difference between BC and other provinces?

Basically, because B.C.’s oversight of prescription drugs has been steadily eroded by the current administration. Drug industry lobbyists have been appointed to the University of B.C. Therapeutics Initiative, the Ministry’s of Health monitoring body, to a panel examining BCPharmacare. These same drug industry lobbyists are now allowed to meet with ministry staff, when they weren’t before the Liberals took power. B.C. used to have independent drug policy researchers who looked at the pricing and safety of drugs. The current government pretty much destroyed that research with the firing scandals five years ago that led to the tragic death of researcher Rod MacIsaac. We also have much higher drug prices here because of the influence of the pharmaceutical companies on government policy. I could go on, but, the bottom line is, we need to strengthen the UBC Therapeutics Initiative and restore its independence, ban pharmaceutical lobbyists from government, and stop taking advice from drug companies on what works best for patients.

Dear Kati, thank you for taking the time to write. I am very proud of our health care platform, with our emphasis on creating an integrated, fiscally sound approach to health and wellness.
I will answer your questions in short form here, but urge you to read the full platform at http://www.bcgreens.ca/health

Question 1 response:

A BC Green gov’t will establish a Ministry responsible for health promotion, disease prevention and active lifestyles. We will explore additional measures to discourage consumption of harmful substances and invest $35 million in nutrition and physical activity programs, thus prioritizing prevention. We will allocate $100 million for the expansion of support for interprofessional, integrated primary care to be provided by physiotherapists, nurse practioners, midwives, dietitians and other health professionals. We will invest in new long term care facilities and require adequate staffing; and $35 million in home care to enable people who need assistance to stay in their own homes. We will work with health authorities to remove identify and remove barriers to integrating services between acute and post-acute care. Our economic platform includes increasing assistance rates and introducing a basic income so people are supported regardless of what is happening in their lives.

Question 2 & 3 response:

The federal Green Party has always advocated for a national pharmacare program and a BC Green gov’t will work to achieve this. We will re-fund the UBC Therapeutics Initiative to ensure prescription drugs are made available and covered based on scientific evidence. We will work to remove barriers to care so that British Columbians can get the services they need.

Sue Moen
BC Green Party candidate
North Island

Thank you for your e-mail and your cause.  It is very near and dear to me as both my Uncle and my Aunt had cancer, one lived and overcame leukemia and the other was not so lucky. I know that she would be proud to see that I advocate for those diagnosed in the future.

Here are my answers to the questionnaire.

Thanks again!

Yvonne

Question 1:

In a poll conducted by Innovative Research Group in August of 2016, healthcare is the number three issue (behind housing and the economy, and just in front of education) on the minds of BC voters.

If elected:

A)How will your government improve the delivery of cancer care and other healthcare services in BC?

By providing more affordable training to young adults who wish to enter the medical field.  In order to have more doctors and specialists to meet the needs of patients diagnosed with cancer and their families.  The BC Greens will also see that specialists from other countries who have become Canadian citizens have the ability to transfer their professional qualifications into the Canadian system, for again, all hands on deck is what it will take to serve the people.  We will also put funding into preventative health care programs in the Public School System to ensure that BC’s children are learning how to stay in optimal health and actively participate in their own well-being,

B)Will your government restructure healthcare delivery, and if so, how?

We will restructure the healthcare delivery after a thorough investigation of how it is operating to then understand how it can be improved.  We will work with healthcare professionals, clinics and systems to learn of their needs and expertise to guide the decision-making processes towards change.  We, the Greens, plan to establish a ministry responsible for healthy living, wellness and preventative medicine. Develop an Essential Drugs program to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and create a ministry for mental health and addictions.  Lastly, we wish to support seniors and others who need assistance to live in their own homes.  Lastly, we plan to add $100 million over 4 years to hire and support more social workers to ensure that people have the support they need to live healthy lifestyles.

C)How will your government ensure that cancer patients receive the services they need, including home care, financial assistance during recovery and for long-term side effects of cancer and/or treatment?

As mentioned above, with substantial funding being put into the healthcare program to ensure that cancer patients needs are met including financial assistance, home care and after care.  I, personally, would like to see the Nurse’s hotline expanded to provide 24 hour phone care system where patients can speak to a professional at any time to seek sound medical advice.

D)What will your government do to better the wait time for people who require an operation?

Integrated healthcare delivery, where there is a closer relationship between acute and post-acute care providers, can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare resource use. By coordinating care across settings, investing in integrated information technology systems, addressing unwarranted variations in the utilization of healthcare services, and leveraging non-physician healthcare professionals, the pressure on acute care beds can be reduced.  A BC Green government will invest $40 million in new long term care facilities to increase the availability of beds in acute care facilities. The availability of hospital beds is the choke point, determining surgery waitlists, which are one of the top-of-mind issues in health care. The costs of an acute care bed can range from $800 to $2000 per day according to a 2015 report by the BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA). According to the BCCPA, approximately 13% of acute care beds are occupied by someone who is waiting for a long-term care bed, which cost about $200 per day.  Facilities need to be created to make space for patients!

Question 2:

A key element of providing timely treatment for cancer patients is ensuring that they have access to the medications they need at the time they need them. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in British Columbia.

A)If elected, will your government commit to increasing the number of new cancer and other drugs approved for public reimbursement so that all British Columbians have timely access to the drugs they need, and if so, how will this be accomplished?

Yes, a BC Green government will develop a proposal to implement an essential drugs program beginning in 2019, designed to reduce the costs of prescription drugs and ensure that the cost of drugs is not a barrier to health management. The cost of prescription drugs prevents too many British Columbians from addressing treatable conditions. As conditions go untreated, it becomes much costlier to deal with the consequences down the road. Although many political parties have acknowledged this fact, it requires a solid plan and political will to act. This initiative will provide an evidence-based, integrated roadmap that will ensure British Columbians can get the essential pharmaceutical drugs they require in order to treat their health conditions.

B)If elected to government will you undertake negotiations leading to regional collaboration to ensure timely patient access to cancer drugs?

Absolutely, regional collaboration is a top priority for our party as we believe in working together for a better future for all of our children.

Question 3:

A study published from the University of British Columbia says that one in 12 Canadians (aged 55 and older) were the second most likely among comparable countries to stop filling their prescriptions in 2014 because of cost.

A)If elected to government, what will your party do to make prescription medications more affordable?

Yes, we want to make healthcare affordable and we want to see MSP premiums rolled into personal income tax and no longer a taxing bill. A BC Green government will establish a task force to develop a plan to transition the balance of resources between acute/chronic care and primary/preventative care. The task force will review the funding and range of services covered by the healthcare system to ensure the mix of services better meets the treatment and prevention needs of the population. The task force will deliver its recommendations to the government by May 2019. We will consult with physicians and other stakeholders to improve efficiency, reduce administration, and incentivize becoming a General Practitioner. There is agreement among political parties that we need to increase the emphasis of healthcare spending on prevention. The challenge is how to make the transition.

Access to primary care is a key part of preventing small health issues from becoming full blown crises. Whether it is preventing an unattended sprained ankle from becoming chronic arthritis or a small lump from metastasizing into a larger cancer, early intervention improves health outcomes and is far more cost-effective. Despite the importance of primary care, many British Columbians do not have a family doctor. Others can’t afford costly prescription medications or services like physiotherapists. A B.C. Green government would remove barriers to care so that British Columbians can get the services they need to stay healthy.

B)Why is there such a difference between BC and other provinces?

Great question!!! We would like to see these differences abolished as we can learn from our fellow provinces trials and errors and make the best and most informed decisions for BC residents.

My party will not form the next government as we have only 10 candidates. We could provide a balance of power and bring some sanity to the legislature. The first step in solving or improving a problem is to realistically define the problem and what are the causes. Unless you are the premier, no MLA has the authority to dictate any changes and most of the drug and health financing and policy issues originate in Ottawa. Personally, if the opportunity or authority comes to me, the first step is to consult with persons affected and define the specifics and take it from there. I can offer sympathy as my family has been affected by cancer and I am one of the citizens who does not have a doctor.

I must caution you that my experience in (local) government shows that reform, particularly on significant policy issues, takes years to implement. I will be the first to declare that being in the role of deciding public policy is immensely frustrating and can drive you up a wall. I have no illusions about the degree of impact I could make and I would be a liar to promise any outcome other than to say I would try to influence things the best I can.

Hello Ms Oliver;

I believe that our comprehensive Health platform answers your concerns regarding timely and accessible care for cancer patients.
Rita Giesbrecht – BC Green Party

As you will see; we will create a separate ministry to specifically address preventative and healthy lifestyle practices, going upstream to the root causes of disease, and providing a healthier framework for recovery and chronic care.

We will also build stronger community health infrastructure to give better access to chronic, acute, and post-acute care.

We will work with physicians to reduce administrative burdens of doing business by physicians, to relieve the 1 !/2 days per week that doctors currently spend, this freeing up valuable time for patient care.

All of our policies directly address the Social Determinants of Health, and reflect the value that governments first and foremost responsibility is to safeguard the health and well-being of the citizens.

I think you will find that Green policy is much more accessible, comprehensive, and respectful of the patient, than is currently the case.

in hope and optimism;

Rita

Rita Giesbrecht