Hospital foundations team up to call for Fraser Health reform

This article was written by Matthew Claxton and originally published by the Langley Advance Times

Three hospital foundations from Langley, South Surrey, and Delta, have joined forces to advocate to Victoria for more health care funding for the fast growing region.

The South Fraser Healthcare Alliance was announced on Tuesday, Oct. 13. It’s composed of the foundations that support Delta Hospital, Peace Arch Hospital, and Langley Memorial Hospital.

The group was created to advocate for equitable health care access and investment into the South Fraser Region. The area includes some of the fastest growing communities in the province, but has seen health care and seniors care struggle to keep up with the population explosion of recent decades.

“If we’re building all the homes and schools, we need to make sure the health care infrastructure is there as well,” said Carrisa Basham, executive director of the Langley Community Health & Hospital Foundation (LCHHF).

The three hospital foundations involved all represent community hospitals, rather than major trauma centres or regional hospitals, like Surrey Memorial.

The chair of the new Alliance is Peter Fassbender, a former Langley City mayor and MLA.

The new group has already been reaching out to municipal and provincial candidates to raise the issues during the current elections.

“No matter who the next [provincial] government is, the issue is going to be equally prominent,” he said.

The group includes Manjit Gill, a local businesswoman and philanthropist who has been a major donor to the LCHHF.

“My family has relied on health care in Langley for generations, and we’ve experienced firsthand the excellent care provided here,” Gill said in a statement announcing the Alliance’s formation. “But, we’ve also seen how stretched the system is, with beds constantly full and some patients having to leave the community to get the care they need.”

The new organization says Fraser Health, which serves the South Fraser Region, along with Burnaby and cities to its east north of the river, has the lowest per person health care funding of any of B.C.’s five regional health authorities.

Their analysis shows Fraser Health gets about $2,261 per person in annual healthcare funding, compared to $3,922 to $4,312 per person in the other four.

“We’re so far behind in what residents should have access to,” said Basham.

The organization is also calling for more investment locally in acute care and long term care beds.

The wait list for getting into a long term care bed averages about 402 days in Fraser Health, compared to 290 days provincially.

In addition, the Alliance wants the province to modernize and expand community hospitals to meet the growing demand, and to integrate healthcare into future planning. In other words, they want corresponding increasing in healthcare infrastructure to go hand in hand with housing mandates and population growth.

“We’re not suggesting there is an instant fix,” Fassbender said.

What they want is for the province to recognize that there is a chronic shortfall in care, and to commit to working to fix it.