The BC NDP likes to talk about "taking action."
Let's talk about that, shall we?
Health Authority and Ministry of Health Corporate Expenditures
Each of the health authorities has a line in their financial statements labelled "Corporate" expenditures. There's a corresponding line in the Ministry of Health financials labelled "Executive & Support Services." These cover centralized costs not related to program-level spending, e.g., hospital admin. What exactly does it cover then? Good question. Definitely not front-line care. And what results do we get for that? The financial statements don't say.
| In 2017, corporate spending cost: | Adrian Dix and the BC NDP more than doubled it: |
| $1.4 billion | $3.5 billion |
| 7.8% of total health budget | 11.5% of total health budget |
| $286 per person | $616 per person |
Annual spending increased over $800 million in the past two years.
Money well spent? It didn't help with their cost projections. Corporate spending in 2024 is 28% more than budgeted.
Is it reasonable for corporate/executive expenses to increase by $2.1 billion while our health system crumbles?
While annual corporate expenses increased 149% in that time, MSP (doctors, etc.) expenditures increased only 62%.
What else could that $2.1 billion annual increase buy?
Over 5000 family doctors, including overhead.
And yes, you're thinking… where will we get 5000 doctors from?
Thousands of doctors are on the sidelines now. Wasted. They've left, scaled back, switched to niche practices (e.g., Botox), retired prematurely, or burned out. More are planning their exit every day.
Why? Most are sick of health authority bureaucrats driving the system into the ground. Treating front-line workers like garbage. Underpaying them. Making their job impossible.
They'd be thrilled to return to what they dedicated their life to. All it takes is to provide them with real support, stop treating them like crap, and compensate them to match the value they provide.
And it's not just doctors, but every front-line health professional.
But you don't need 5000 new doctors. Take some of that money and put it towards effective administrative and clinical support (e.g., physician assistants). Doctors would be much more productive. Real physician-led teams are very different from the government's flawed approach to "team-based care."
Two years (and $6.8 billion) ago, BC Health Care Matters called on the Auditor General of BC to conduct a performance audit of central administrative operating expenditures within the Ministry of Health and BC's five regional health authorities. This has not occurred.
The request should extend to include the Provincial Health Services Authority. With corporate expenses of $1.3 billion per year (up 28% in one year), its size and growth outpaces the increases in the five regional health authorities.
With the massive increase in spending and decay in health services in the past year, this audit is more urgent than ever.
Okay, so the health authority financials don't say anything about what this money is really being used for. However, it is possible to dig a bit deeper by filing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
For example, these charts show the breakdown of the $293M+ in 2023 corporate spending in Island Health. Look like head office bureaucracy to you?
Here's the raw data in the FOI response:
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Spending by object. Over 50% on salaries.
Spending by function. Around half goes towards "strategy" and IT, and another third to finance and HR.
Here's a sobering thought…
That $2.1 billion annual INCREASE in head office spending since 2017?
That's around how much British Columbians donate to ALL charities in one year.
Think about how much good comes from that charitable giving.
How much good could that excess money going to health admin do if better spent?
Why does this keep happening? What can YOU do?
Demand independent and mandatory reporting on our health system. The same organization that funds, manages, and operates the health system cannot be trusted to report on it too. Especially when there are political consequences for sharing bad news with the public.
The BC NDP have grossly mismanaged health care. Is changing government enough to fix this? Will BC Conservatives or BC United do better? No! Given free rein, they'd be a disaster too, just a different one. Because no government is accountable to the public or required to tell the full truth about taxpayer money spent and health services delivered.
To fix, strengthen, and protect our most treasured social program, we need an independent body with full, legally mandated access to report regularly on health system performance: access, outcomes, and financials. Start with a full public audit and inquiry of what's happened in health care over the last five years and where we are now. And don't trust any government to make sweeping changes without full transparency and accountability safeguards in place.
Our health system needs adult supervision.
Demand REAL action — and results — from your MLA.
And make this a firm condition to support election candidates from any party.