WHEREAS provincial funding for capital equipment and projects for hospitals and health facilities has been on decline despite urgent needs for facility upgrades and equipment repairs; AND WHEREAS Regional Hospital Districts and local tax payers cannot be expected to increase their funding contributions to address critical gap; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the provincial government properly fund the operating and equipping of hospitals and health facilities in British Columbia.
Ministry of Health Since 2001, the health sector has invested more than 9.1 billion on health capital projects to expand, modernize and upgrade hospitals and health care facilities across British Columbia. Over the next three years, BCs health care system will benefit from investments such as new medical equipment and modernized health facilities as part of a 2.9 billion health sector capital plan. To support health authorities in using health care dollars most efficiently and with maximum flexibility, the Province implemented a multi-year capital budgeting system and a capital policy framework that encourages more innovative solutions to meeting capital needs e.g., public private partnerships; residential care service agreements. As there is not an unlimited supply of capital funding, health authorities and the Ministry of Health must prioritize capital requests to ensure funds are directed to the facilities with the greatest need. While all health facilities regularly require replacement of medical equipment, no health facility in BC goes unequipped. We will continue to invest in frontline care. Health authorities are expected to receive an operating funding increase of approximately eight percent over the next three years. Health authorities continue to spend approximately 60 percent of their total annual expenditures in the acute care sector.