Health Care the focus in afternoon session at UBCM

As it has been in Prince Rupert, concerns over the state of local health care across the province have made for some key discussion topics for Municipal council's and today an opportunity for engagement on the issue of Health  Care comes to the UBCM convention.

An afternoon Plenary Session is scheduled for 1:30 to 3:15 today at the Whistler convention, with Health Minister Adrian Dix to be part of the discussion group that will look at "Re-envisioning" Health Care in British Columbia.

In their preview of the session, the UBCM notes that Mr. Dix will be joined by Mayor Gaby Wickstrom (Town of Port McNeill), Mayor Merlin Blackwell (District of Clearwater, and Councillor Pete Fry (City of Vancouver, who is the chair of UBCM’s Health and Social Development Committee.  

Others participating in the panel and discussion will be Other panellists in this session include Troy Clifford, Provincial President, Ambulance Paramedics & Emergency Dispatchers of BC; George Abbott, President, Circle Square Solutions Inc.; Dr. Kerry Jang, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia; and Dr. Ray Markham, (OBC) Rural Family Physician.

The discussion topic should be a hot button one, with a number of communities facing many challenges with their health care of late including for some the closure of emergency rooms, long wait times for surgery and difficulties in accessing a family physician.

Many communities are also reporting challenges in recruiting or retaining health care professionals in their areas, another issue that most likely will make for some of the discussion is the current state of ambulance service in British Columbia.

Those topics made for much of the discussion in Prince Rupert at a late August at a Town Hall on Health Care hosted by MLA Jennifer Rice. 

A few of the city's council members were in attendance at that event and hopefully they bring back some notes from today's UBCM event that offer some positive news of the provincial view of the situation facing communities.

Some of the Northwest delegation members have been sharing some thoughts on the progress of UBCM through the social media stream created for the event, you can see how elected officials from Smithers and Terrace among others are viewing the event through the #UBCM2022 twitter feed

You can review more notes on the UBCM convention from our archive page.