Few election issues are as contentious as health care. The B.C. Liberals say that their commitment to the health of people in this province is proven by their track record. Critics say that if voters go with that party’s history, our health-care system is in trouble.

NDP health critic Adrian Dix points to the Liberals’ $319 million in unfunded health costs.

“We have serious concerns about cuts that are coming,” Dix tells the Straight in a phone interview. “There will be serious cuts to the provincial health care in the next few months if the Liberals are reelected. They’re hoping to sneak their way through this election, but that’s what’s in the future.

“This government will use the recession as an excuse to reduce the quality and coverage of public health care, and there will be severe consequences.”

Tom Bradfield, B.C. Green party candidate for Saanich North and the Islands, says that the Liberals are squandering taxpayers’ dollars.

“We’d look at how much how many people at the top are making,” Bradfield says on the line from his office. “We’d also stop these ridiculous ”˜Best Place on Earth’ ads and give real services instead of self-promotion. The only people impressed with those ads are the Liberals themselves.”

But Health Minister George Abbott stands by his party’s progress and plans.

“The priority that our government gives to health care is reflected in the $15 billion in health-care spending this year,” Abbott tells the Straight in a phone interview. That’s up 70 percent from $9.4 billion since 2000–01. “It’s a huge priority for this government.

“There’s certainly not going to be any reduction in dollars,” he adds, noting that 90 percent of all budgeted new spending during the next three years will go to health care, bringing health-care spending to $17.5 billion by 2011–12.

The Liberals’ opponents, however, have other particular concerns, chief among them being seniors’ care.

In fact, health services for seniors under the Liberal leadership is an issue that Dix describes as a “crisis”. He claims that in 2001, the Liberals promised 5,000 long-term-care beds but that there are 800 fewer beds available now than there were that year.

“At this rate, the Liberals will fulfill the promise they made in 2001 by 2051,” Dix says. “The better plan is to change the government right now.”

Dix also alleges that B.C. has the lowest quality of care for seniors in the country.

“We have unacceptably low standards,” he says. “There’s an urgent need for home care and home support. Most seniors I know want to stay at home. The Liberals have cut home-care support by 24 percent. They are pushing people to already overburdened acute long-term care, toward the most expensive form of care.”

The B.C. Health Coalition told the Straight the provincial Liberals advised the organization that they would not be sending a candidate to a May 5 Vancouver debate on seniors’ health care. And the B.C. NDP issued a news release on April 27 that claimed the Liberal representative for an April 26 Victoria candidates’ debate for seniors pulled out an hour before the event.

According to Dix, the NDP would address home care by allotting and funding 3.2 hours of care per resident per day and creating 3,000 long-term-care beds over the next four years. The party would also appoint an independent seniors’ representative.

Abbott doesn’t buy his opponents’ claims.

“In the 2005 election, we promised 5,000 incremental units—assisted-living and residential-care units—and that promise has been met.”¦Some critics disparage the value of assisted-living units; I think they’ve been of enormous value,” Abbott says. “In 2001, the wait time to get into residential care was about one year. Today it’s about 15 to 19 days.”

Dix also says the closure of acute-care beds has led to overly long waits in emergency departments in some regions, and he criticizes the ruling party for closing St. Mary’s Hospital in New Westminster, which is in the fastest-growing health region in the province.

One of the priorities of the Green party would be to restructure the health authorities so that they’re more connected to the communities. The Liberals reduced the number of authorities from 52 to six in what they claim was an effort to reduce bureaucrats’ overhead costs.

“The health authorities are too distant from the people they’re supposed to serve and their [own] workers,” Bradfield says. “There are real inefficiencies with the health authorities.”

Bradfield notes that the Greens strongly support programs promoting healthy living and prevention. Where would the money come from for such initiatives?

“It would have to be reallocated,” Bradfield says. “We’d look at general revenues from tobacco and alcohol taxes as well as gambling and redirect some of those revenues to health and health-promotion and -prevention programs.”

Other key goals of the Greens include improving services to people with disabilities, services that Bradfield says are too fragmented.

Among the NDP’s promises is one to open four public day-surgical centres. The party would increase annual funding for health care by $5.4 billion over three years and claims it would deliver wait-time guarantees in cancer, cardiac, hip and knee replacement, cataract, and diagnostic areas.

Dix adds that the party would improve cleanliness and the quality of food in hospitals.

“We know the dangers of not doing this,” he says. “The fact that this is not a matter of policy right now defies common sense.”

Mental-health services are crucial too, Dix notes.

“According to a Vancouver police report, one-third of police calls are essentially mental-health calls.”¦When you don’t provide services in the community, those people end up in the emergency room or in jail or with the police. It costs more money not to provide the right services.”

The NDP claims it would provide supportive housing for people with mental illnesses and those living with addictions, citing immediate support for 100 new detox spaces, 100 new addiction-treatment spaces, and 100 new long-term mental-health treatment beds.

To prove the Liberals’ commitment to helping those with mental-health and addiction problems, Abbott once again refers to what his party has already put in place.

“I’m particularly proud of the new piece in the continuum of care for mental health and addictions: the Burnaby Centre [for Mental Health and Addictions], which helps people with dual diagnosis,” he says. “That’s the first in Canada. Another facility we’re very proud of is the Crossing at Keremeos residential treatment facility for young people facing substance addictions.”

Abbott points to other projects as evidence of the Liberals’ support of health care. The party has pledged to expand B.C. Children’s Hospital and built the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre, the first new regional hospital in more than three decades. At the Surrey Memorial Hospital, it’s building a new critical-care tower to increase the number of acute-care beds by more than 30 percent, including a new emergency department.

It also claims that it will ban trans fats in restaurants and schools by 2010, will ban junk food in vending machines in schools and hospitals, and has banned smoking in vehicles when children under 16 are present.

“B.C. has the best health-care delivery in Canada,” Abbott says. “I don’t want to argue it’s perfect, but relative to other jurisdictions in Canada, it’s very good.”