Photo: The Canadian Press The Minister of Health of BC Adrian Dix pauses while speaking during an announcement in Burnaby, BC on May 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Health Minister Adrian Dix says British Columbia has been in a health care crisis since at least the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while acknowledging there is an urgent need for change. Dix spoke in Whistler today at the Association of BC Municipalities, an annual meeting of municipal politicians, during a plenary session on health care. He says the pandemic has seen primary care shift to a disproportionately digital system, creating challenges alongside crises in paramedic services, nursing staffing levels and other areas. Dix says the number of people without a family doctor has risen from about 340,000 in 2003 to 908,000 in 2017 and is expected to be higher this year. He says the BC government is working to improve the reimbursement model for doctors, transition to team-based care models and increase recruitment and retention practices. Dix says 38,000 new employees were added to the health care system in B.C. since becoming health minister in 2017 and says he knows that’s not enough. “You know what everyone in this room is saying to themselves right now? It’s not enough,” says Dix. “We need to transform the health system.”
