WATCH: BC health care system ‘unproductive and inefficient,’ Conservative critic says

BC may have strong doctor-per-capita numbers, but the province’s health care system is failing to translate those resources into better care for patients, according to BC Conservative Seniors and Rural Health Critic MLA Brennan Day.

In an interview with Sitka Media, Day called BC’s health care system “extremely unproductive and inefficient,” arguing that frontline workers are working hard without seeing the results patients need.

“You can spend all the money you want, but if you're not effectively and efficiently delivering that care on the front lines, it's not going to matter how much money you spend,” Day said.

Day also pushed back on the provincial government’s claims of progress on primary care, pointing to roughly 1.3 million British Columbians without a family doctor at the end of 2025.

He said that figure stood at about 800,000 in 2016.

“I do know that that is not progress in the right direction,” Day said.

While the province has pointed to its recruitment of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals as progress, Day argued retaining existing workers should be the bigger priority.

“Retaining the ones we already have is absolutely the thing that the government should be most focused on,” he said.

Day also called for qualified internationally trained health care workers to be able to enter BC’s workforce more quickly, saying he hears from nurses who have spent years trying to become permitted to work in the province.

Asked what British Columbians would notice first under a BC Conservative government, Day pointed to rural emergency room closures.

“When you are near a hospital, you expect that hospital to be open when you need it,” he said.

Day said the province should also expand air ambulance services and improve how rural patients are transported to care.

He argued rural British Columbians are often forced to pay significant travel costs to access specialized care in Vancouver and Victoria.

“We have to get better at getting those people to services in a reasonable time and a reasonable cost,” Day said.

Day also said a BC Conservative government would commit to ensuring every British Columbian who wants a family doctor or primary care provider has access to one.

“That should be the baseline,” he said.