23 doctors from Metro Vancouver sign letter questioning B.C. Conservative policies

The emergency entrance at Surrey Memorial Hospital is pictured in Surrey, B.C., on Sept. 9, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns)

An open letter signed by 23 doctors and one nurse practitioner in B.C.’s Lower Mainland highlights their concerns about the potential for cuts to the health-care system if John Rustad’s Conservatives form government after this month’s provincial election.

While it doesn’t endorse any political parties, the letter says there’s been “positive trajectory” taking place behind the scenes, and that they don’t want to lose the momentum.

“We are worried about what we have heard from the B.C. Conservatives about the potential for budget cuts and shifts toward privatization,” it reads, highlighting the erosion in services other countries have seen as for-profit models grow.

“As we move forward, it is essential that our leaders make decisions based on science and the best available evidence, rather than pandering to specific subsets of society,” it goes on to say. “As such, we are extremely concerned by John Rustad’s comments on vaccines, undermining the public health advice and medical science.” 

The letter was sent to various newsroom the day after the B.C. Conservative leader apologized for comments linking health care and policy decision during the pandemic to a Nazi war crimes tribunal. 

The letter highlights issues in Surrey, but there are signatories from other areas as well – and similar problems exist at Langley Memorial Hospital and other sites within the Fraser Health region.

It doesn’t let the current government off the hook either, but claims “despite not always agreeing with the B.C. NDP on various issues, we have found common ground over the last number of years on the issue of improving health care in Surrey.”

Dr. Reece Schemmer, who’s worked at LMH for seven years, described the patient volume increasing 50 per cent in that time, and told CTV News that a letter they published last year warning about risks to patients, in combination with pressure from Surrey Memorial Hospital doctors, has resulted in improvements that are slowly starting to make a difference for patients. 

“We’re making progress in the right direction but there’s so much more to do and if we come in and just start cutting things and saying, ‘We don’t need this, we don’t need that,’ the whole system coud just collapse,” he said. “I think certain people benefit from the public collapsing, but (for) the public, it’d be a massive disservice.”

Under the NDP, there’s already a growing reliance on for-profit staffing agencies and surgical clinics to provide minimum services. 

Rustad insists that any use of private clinics would still be "single payer," meaning patients wouldn't pay out-of-pocket, and that the measures would be in full compliance with the Canada Health Act. 

While Surrey Memorial's emergency department doctors sent a scathing letter to Fraser Health calling for a change in leadership last month, the Medical Staff Association at SMH is not wading into the provincial election or weighing in on which party they’d prefer to govern. 

“Health care is a human right and should not be political,” wrote MSA president Dr. Amol Lail. “We look forward to continue working with Ministry of Health, regardless of who is in power, to achieve this goal.”

Fraser Health has been offering bonuses and guaranteed payments of up to $4,100 in a desperate bid to recruit doctors to work hard-to-fill emergency department shifts as the health-care staffing crunch grips the entire country, with rural and remote communities bearing the brunt.