BC FORUM News - from The Advocate, Autumn 2016

“We can do a whole lot better”

In a spirited address to BC FORUM delegates, Judy Darcy, the BC NDP spokesperson on health care, characterized the BC Liberals as contemptuous and arrogant.

For example, when she noted that a cabinet minister had failed to answer a question in the Legislature, he responded, “It’s question period, not answer period.”

Among the highlights of Darcy’s speech:

• We have the only medical services tax in the entire country. It’s an unfair tax. An NDP government will change that.

• There are seniors who every day are forced to make unacceptable choices about whether they can afford to pay for prescriptions.

• BC has the longest wait times in the country for hip and knee replacements, with people waiting in pain for up to two and a half years.

• Fifty percent of seniors on antipsychotic medications in residential care homes don’t have a diagnosis of psychosis. Instead of adequate staffing to help seniors live in dignity, they are being restrained with chemicals.

• In three out of five health regions, the availability of home support services has declined.

“There aren’t very many promises they made to British Columbians that they have actually kept,” said Darcy.

“We can do a whole lot better if we achieve government,” said Darcy. She said the NDP will offer bold, inspirational policies that will make a real difference in the lives of British Columbians.

Darcy called on delegates to “ensure that everyone gets mobilized for 2017. It’s not very far away.”