Latest / Political Capital with Rob Shaw / #98 - Hospital crisis, trade mission and BC United branding

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#98 - Hospital crisis, trade mission and BC United branding · Political Capital with Rob Shaw

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Check Podcasts. Hey everyone, welcome to Political Capital, your source for all
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the latest and BC politics. I'm your host, job Shaw. Thank you
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for being here, Thank you for watching us each and every week here on
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Check. A busy week in BC politics. We have an emerging healthcare crisis
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with doctors speaking out publicly. That's put the NDP on the defensive. We
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also have the premiere taking off for his first international trade trip. We are
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going to break it all down with the pod squad. The panel is here
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as usual, Jeff, Gillian and Ali. Thank you so much for being
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here each and every week to break things down. Let's start with a healthcare
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issue. We talk quite a bit about it on the show, but in
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the last week or so, we've had doctors an increasingly rare and unprecedented quantities
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coming out warning people about conditions overcrowding, understaffing in BC hospital as a twelve
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physician signed letter at BC's busiest er, Surrey Memorial. In the last week,
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the senior most doctor in the ear at Surrey Memorial coming out publicly doing
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interviews saying he would not have his own family attend the hospital, which I
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think caught a lot of people by surprise. And other physicians that have come
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out on sun Spring Island, Santage Peninsula, Langley, the North Island warning
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about overcrowding and substandard conditions in hospitals right now coming out of the pandemic and
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burnout things that we have talked about in the past. This seems to be
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building towards a really big pressure point on the NDP government. I want to
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go around and talk a bit about that. The Premier and the Health Minister
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asked about this. Why don't we start with you, Jeff, What is
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changing here on this file kind of in real time with these physicians coming out
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and speaking, and how do you think that's landing in the public's mind.
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Well, I think there's frustration with people who are in ears and waiting a
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long time for care. The stories that you're hearing coming out of communities.
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It's people waiting hours and hours and hours for necessary healthcare. It's distressing.
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No one should have to wait that long for care. In kudos to the
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caregivers for keeping things going at a difficult time. I think that the issue,
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the fundamental issue is we've talked about this before in the show. It's
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human resources, it's people, it's not having the bodies in our healthcare system
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to keep up with the demand from the public. It's an interesting situation Bcson.
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I think if you'd ask the health workforce planners in twenty ten what's going
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on, they would have said, we need the money so that we can
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train the people for the future. And today those same people have the money,
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but and they're putting it into training, but it's going to take years
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to get people, and they can't find the people, so it's a challenge
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for the government. I would note that the government is currently negotiating with hospital
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doctors on contracts, and so what I'm hoping is that as a result of
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those negotiations we'll see some progress like we have on the doctor's deal, which
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saw a big lift for family doctors and an influx of family doctors, and
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on the issue with the contract with nurses, where they established nurse to patient
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ratios, which will mean more nurses providing care for fewer people. But it's
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a big challenge for the government. There's a lot of frustration and it'll be
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interesting to see how they navigate this challenge and the days and weeks ahead.
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It is a good point the hospitalists, which are kind of the internal all
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purposive doctors that are in hospitals, they are, as you mentioned, Jeff,
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negotiating and that appears to be the key issue at Surrey Memorial and Langley
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as well according to the Health Minister's response. So there is that that dynamic
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happening for sure. Ali, what do you think of all? This seems
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rare to have this many doctors in this many places coming out publicly. They
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worry and they express their worry about reprisal for speaking out publicly. How serious
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is that and what should people be taking away from that? Do you think
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let's not forget that, like we're in competition with other provinces to get doctors
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to come to BC as well. And so when this is making headline news
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and the number one topic in healthcare right now, if I'm a young doctor
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trying to figure out where i want to go in this province, if I'm
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fortunate enough to be that service provide, but then I'm not coming to BC.
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And so what I really hope here is that the NDP are able to
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navigate this in a way that like that we will be able to come to
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a solution, because at the end of the day, if this means less
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doctors coming here because they're not respected and heard. Then we have a people
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problem. To Jeff's point in recruiting the amount of doctors that we need.
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At the other point I want to make here is that we have to stop
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being afraid of this private healthcare word and canceling it immediately. You know,
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our dentistry or chiropractors, our natural paths. These are all private doctors in
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a a sense, and this is another solution. But it never the conversation
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never really gets off the ground because there's such a negative connotation with the private
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healthcare solution. M Yeah, it does, especially with this government. That
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conversation just you know, kind of ends before it even starts. But I
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noticed that it is something occasionally that BC United tries to raise in a kind
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of a difficult way, given the sort of environment people's willingness to talk about,
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you know, our universal public healthcare system. Jillian, what do you
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think of this? Well, I think it's troubling. I think, you
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know, Jeff made really good points about the things that the government can do
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to sort of continue staffing up the healthcare system. That's going to take time,
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I think, in respect to the Surrey situation, in particular, it
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seems like there's a really big disconnect between the health authorities and the doctors in
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the hospital, and this is coming at a time when we really can't afford
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to have any inefficiencies in the system. The doctors felt that they needed to
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come out publicly because they, you know, for some seems like relatively simple
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things like they weren't allowed to have a poster up advising people of wait times.
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They're upset because they haven't been able to include instances where they were understaffed
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in patient records, these sorts of things. So it seems to me that
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there's a disconnect between the health authority and the doctors, and that's something that
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could be addressed right away to sort of make sure that people at least are
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not operating under undue stress in a situation that's already really trying for them.
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The Health Minister has faced that question because doctor's view, those two examples that
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you just gave as kind of efforts to silence them in a way or reprisal
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when they speak out or try to do something. They have their this middle
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management or senior management at Fraser Health kind of come after them a bit,
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and the Health ministers had to say no, no, we're not muzzling doctors.
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We're not trying to muzzle doctors. But that that has blown back a
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little bit politically on the government. Jillian, I want to stay with you
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on this though we've danced around this, and Jeff's talked about the long term
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plans of government here the new med school, nursing spaces, foreign credential training.
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It's can take years to see the results of that. Is like,
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how does government balance that with the short term frustration from people who I think
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legitimately are asking the government, can't you do anything now? Now? Is
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the only solution to kind of grin and bear this for several years and hopes
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that what you have started now bears fruit years from now. That pressure within
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government, what do you think that that is leading to or maybe causing within
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government as they as they get hit by by these kind of increasingly bad news
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stories in this healthcare file. I think the government's in a tough position because
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they want to be publicizing and defending all of the things that they've done,
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which has been you know, especially in the last year or two, quite
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a lot. But you know, like you said, these things are going
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to take a while before they actually have an impact, especially because of how
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long the training takes for healthcare professionals. I think looking at you know,
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if we're experiencing these problems, especially within emergency care and acute care, what
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are other things the government can be doing to take make sure that people don't
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aren't getting to the place of emergency so off in is there more that we
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can be doing to help keep people healthy and help take the pressure off the
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hospital system so that you know, perhaps you know, people are are are
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getting healthy before they get to a point of crisis. I think that's one
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thing they could they could move to. Um, there's lots of social determinants
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of health. We've talked about a lot on this show. UM, you
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know, is there anything around that that they could do that would make a
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difference in the short term. Um, maybe it's time to look at some
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of that sort of stuff while the longer term healthcare policies come into effect.
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Hmm. I sort of wonder if it's going to push the NDP government into
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making kind of uh, you know, announcements that might not do anything or
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aren't even announcements, but just to kind of you know, address that public
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criticism. We're seeing it in cancer care. For example, we talked on
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a previous show about the cancer care delay times having to go to Bellingham for
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cancer care in a new government program will In the last week, Adrian Dix
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has approved concept plans for new cancer care in an animal and Camloops concept plans,
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not even business cases. There's no budget attached to it, there's no
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timeline. They're just concept plans, which you know, the new Democrats in
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the past have kind of said you announce things with business cases, not before
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that, and I think that's an example of government getting hidden a part of
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the healthcare file, feeling that pressure and then starting to announce things they might
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not otherwise normally announce because the long term plan is going to take years to
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show any type of change on that. So I'm kind of watching on that.
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Ali. I want to go back to BC United, Kevin Falcon says,
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and he said this before, maybe the solution here isn't more money.
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And the NDP have added ten billion dollars to the healthcare budget since they came
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into office, of hired thousands and more people. He said, if money
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was just the solution to this, it would have happened already and that you
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have to do something different within the system. Do you think that argument is
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going to continue to hold when you have doctors coming out and saying we need
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more doctors, we need more money, or or how do you reconcile kind
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of the opposition's position there? Do you think I think a point there being
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that we've had record investment in healthcare, thank you NDP government for that,
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and also just the circumstances of the last five years in a focus on healthcare.
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But we've thrown the money at the problem and it's still not creating much
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of the solution. I think here though, for any political party, it's
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really just listening to those who are the experts in the solution. In one
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article I read this week in trying to figure out what's going to solve the
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emergency room healthcare issues, it's that doctors aren't even allowed to send patients to
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alleviate the way times within the emergency room to the specific department within the hospital
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without having to go through that like twenty four to in some cases forty eight
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hours of being and waiting in the emergency room first. And so there are
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some solutions. Here is the point that I'm trying to make in that there's
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policies that can be that help doctors help patients. And that's the case where
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that's not money, that's just sitting down and listening to them and trying to
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figure out how we do a massive overhaul of healthcare. And it's it's easy
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to say, let's just do a massive overhaul of healthcare, but that's really
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what this problem needs is a champion of what and I'm hoping that that's our
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Minister of Health Adriantics right right now and that he can be that. But
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that is what we need, a champion that's going to listen to doctors and
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nurses and everyone in these small solutions because they're the experts, not us.
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Jeff, what do you think money small solutions, long term progress? That
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political pressure, that dynamic, the doctor's speaking out. How does the government
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wade through all of that? Yeah, there's there's things government can do right
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away to make things better. I've seen the government wave fees for internationally trained
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nurses who want to come to BC or people who want to come back to
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practice. That's like three or four thousand dollars incentive. So that's something that
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can make a difference now getting pharmacists to do more expanded scope of practice,
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minor ailments and contraception prescription. So that's taking some of the pressure off of
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ers now. And there's always going to be things that we can be doing
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better in the health system and at least talked about some. I always get
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worried when I hear politicians say money is not the issue, because when I
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hear them say money is not the issue, then that says to me that
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they're not planning to invest money into an issue that requires money to be invested,
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and maybe they're going to put that money somewhere else. So I mean
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that will be the challenge. We were talking about mister Falcon and where he's
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on these issues, but there's it's a big file and whether it's Dicks or
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whether it's someone else in the future, heartslog lots of work to do for
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years to get us to where we need to be. Okay, let's change
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topics to international trade. The Premier heading out on his first overseas trade mission.
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He's going to Singapore, South Korea and Japan sometimes and I know the
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NDP in the past have called these trade missions junkets travel junkets for politicians.
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They get to go and do a bunch of photo ops and come back with,
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you know, not much to show for it, maybe some sister city
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agreement type of thing. The Premier now saying this is important time to do
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this. With international relations with China and Russia obviously causing supply chain problems.
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BC's mineral resources needed for solar panels and electric vehicles in high demand, and
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you know our traditional export products of wood and copper and that type of thing.
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So Premier is very stoked about going on this trip. I talked to
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him about it this week. Thinks things will happen. Is it a junk
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it is it a trip? Can it be both things at the same time.
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I guess depending on which side of the political offense you're on, Jeff,
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let's stick with you on that. Yeah. I could see folks at
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home who are looking at their rent bill or their mortgage and saying, is
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this really a good use of money? And I think anyone who's ever worked
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in a political opposition party has written the news release it's time to junk the
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junkets, right, That's just like a rite of passage. But trademissions are
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important. They can boost economic growth and expand international investment INBC. We've got
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a good story to tell, and you've touched on, you know, the
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products and services that were known for. But I want to take this back,
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and I want to say that this travel is not glamor right. Does
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anyone here think that this kind of work travel is fun? Well, of
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course not. Don't be ridiculous. Picture yourself. You're six foot seven premier
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about ten hours to Japan. Two hours on the front end, two hours
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on the back end, sixteen hour time different, So your internal clock get
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shot. You're away from your family. All your routines that keep you grounded
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and healthy are gone, different food, different beds, always on pressure to
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deliver thanks to shows like this high This is no fun. So if I'm
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a politician, I would like to junk the junkets. But it's it's it's
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important for the economy, important for investment. I think, and and Eby's
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gonna get stuck in economy class too because we have this sort of Can you
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imagine him in an economy class seat that's got a stink, Yeah, especially
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the person just hits his knees. Yeah, we know the public doesn't allow
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politicians to fly first class, even though we expect them to jump off the
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plane on the other end and immediately into work. But anyways, Alium,
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what's your thought on this? I know, like from a communications point of
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view, the other challenges, the government needs to show some sort of you
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know progress there and not bore the public. But it doesn't also want to
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show what would look like the premier having a holiday in front of you know,
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landmarks, So you get these boring kind of grip and grins with dignitaries
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like the governor of Tokyo, which the premiers planning to meet, and the
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public doesn't think this was worthwhile at all, so you kind of stuck in
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a position too. Yeah, I don't think people would necessarily like mind it
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or focus on all of the potential communication blenders that could come from these sort
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of trips where all eyes are on our politicians, as long as you come
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back with something to show for it. So I mean, spend all the
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money that it takes, but you have to come back with something. So
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something that I'm going to be looking at is the fact that like one of
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our major exports of course, will be potentially L and G and so is
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this a potential where he comes back with a good deal for us spend all
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the money it takes for that to happen, but you got to come back
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with something in order to to pay for all of that. Yeah, the
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Premier is meeting with Mitsubishi, which is a partner I believe in LENG Canada,
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So that's he is going to have to talk about LG, even though
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I think he's preferring to talk about hydrogen and Ballard's kind of fuel cell BC
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hydrogen connection rather than LG. But that's an I think that's an ideological thing
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for the new Democrats and for this premiere when it comes to L and G.
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Jillian, what do you think junkett Worthwhile difficult for government to navigate,
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I think they are important. BC relies a lot on exports. We have
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a major port. I think BC is the closest sport to Asia in North
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America, so it is really important. But you know, it's also really
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hard to measure success on trips like this because a lot of the time they're
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about long term relationship building. So it is really important to you know,
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go over remind people of all of the things that we have to offer in
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BC. But often these relationships take a really long time to bear fruit.
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It's really difficult to quantify, so that's the challenge. I think. You
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know, we've seen, especially at the federal level in the last couple of
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years, how leaning too much on the communications aspect of these trips can have
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a really negative effect for government. The Prime Minister has had a lot of
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sort of you know, gaffs and unfavorable sort of photo ops and things like
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that. So I think that the PC government has probably learned from that and
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is going to be focusing more on the business side of the trip. I'm
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not sure, you know that we should be expecting anything too concrete. Perhaps,
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well we'll see something specific with respect to natural resources, but you know,
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I think as it's hard to quantify, but it still is important.
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Yeah, okay, let's just squeeze in one final topic here. We only
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have a minute or so. But BC United new advertising campaign trying to get
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that brand out or the former BC Liberal Party. We're going to show some
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of it here just in the background, Kevin Falcon walking through a forest talking
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about BC's diminished stature, talking a bit about you know, his plan.
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This intended to get that branding into the public's mind and that that idea,
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that messaging he keeps saying about providing results, not rhetoric, just quickly go
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around here, good, bad, corny effective. How do you think this
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new advertising campaign is landing, Jillian start with you. Yeah, I thought
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it was interesting. It's definitely a shift in strategy in terms of messaging.
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The Falcon talking about how, you know, the NDP is thinking too small
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and we need to be thinking bigger in order to sort of address all of
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the problems that the province is facing. And I think that that's so fascinating
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because traditionally, you know, BC United former BC Liberal roles are more of
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a small government party. Falcon's sort of been trying to run on this issue,
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building on some of his record building things like the Portman Bridge. I'm
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not sure it's going to land. It's such a big shift. You know,
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they need to be doing something different to get ahead of the polls.
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But I'm not sure that it's consistent enough with public perceptions of his party in
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terms of where they're already at. Yeah, okay, Allie, thirty seconds.
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What do you think political parties have to do this? It's not even
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just that BC United had a new rebrand and the and the new local launch.
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That there needs to be like two streams for all political parties in advertising
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and getting their word out there. And that's the positive messaging and the contrast
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messaging. And so I think you're going to see a lot of that in
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the next year, certainly as we lead up to the election. But it's
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not just election periods that you should see these sorts of advertising. You should
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see them year round. Jeff, final word, do you it's the same
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first ad every politician has ever done. Aren't things bad? Things will be
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better if you vote for me. So it's you know, it's fine.
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Who I feel bad for is the viewers at home. They're trying to watch
22:10
The Upside and America's Funny Funniest Home Videos coming up after Political Capital here on
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check looking for some good news and they've got to deal with the downer Kevin
22:18
Kevin Falcon talking down BC. Come on, let's chase America's where where's the
22:23
good news? Yeah? Yeah, hey, look, great ratings for America's
22:27
Funniest Own Videos. It's a popular show. So hopefully we didn't show that's
22:32
fine. Upside good news stories and Victoria's good show all right, Thank you
22:37
for watching, Thanks for the panel for being here. As always, make
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sure you subscribe check plus Political Capital on your podcast device or here Sunday's on
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check TV. Thanks so much. We will be back next week with all
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the latest here on Political Capital.