Access to Medical Imaging

April 2024
Access to Care | Resolution

To address long diagnostic wait times and delayed provision of care across a variety of health care contexts and specialties, Doctors of BC calls for immediate actions to address critical challenges with access to medical imaging services in BC.

Addressing Challenges to Surgical Care

November 2022
Access to Care | Policy Statement
Link 542.89 KB

Doctors of BC Position: Doctors of BC recognizes the surgical care challenges in BC, including growing wait lists, surgical wait-times, and the shortage of health care staff and the additional burdens on surgeons, anesthesiologists, and other health care providers. To address these concerns, Doctors of BC calls on the BC Ministry of Health and health authorities to meaningfully engage and collaborate with physicians at various levels to ensure surgical plans are appropriate; implement strategies to recruit and retain health care staff; provide physicians with the necessary resources and infrastructure to deliver quality patient care; and, increase transparency related to wait-list data.

Wait Times and Patient Care Guarantees

February 2012
Access to Care | Policy Statement
Link 152.68 KB

Doctors of BC Position: Wait times continue to be an issue of significant concern in the BC health system. In order to guarantee patient care, Doctors of BC supports treating patients within established wait time benchmarks for key services and/or procedures, and this should be supported by the option to use another public or private facility if needed to meet the benchmark.

Emergency Department Overcrowding Policy Statement

July 2011
Access to Care | Policy Statement
Link 167.94 KB

Doctors of BC Position: Doctors of BC encourages the provincial government to mitigate emergency department wait times and overcrowding, by considering measures such as establishing maximum length of stay benchmarks, overcapacity protocols, bed optimization strategies, and expanding availability of functional acute care beds.

Improving Access to Acute Care Services

July 2011
Access to Care | Policy Statement
Link 208.81 KB

Doctors of BC Position: Due to an aging population and increasing case complexity, there is a growing need for access to acute care services. Doctors of BC calls on the provincial government to establish modeling for the supply of functional acute care beds, account for increased need for acute care beds, and provide the necessary infrastructure and resources to ensure patients timely access of acute care beds.

Improving Access to Acute Care Services

August 2008
Access to Care | Policy Paper
Link 249.26 KB

Doctors of BC Position: Doctors of BC supports a number of recommendations on improving acute care services in BC. Efforts to improve access to acute care must focus on establishing wait time benchmarks for acute care, increasing supply of acute care beds, managing beds effectively, investing in community-based care, and improving government accountability. To better predict areas of need and to better allocate acute care resources, additional data collection and modelling is needed that is based on the realities of the practice setting and should be developed in collaboration with practicing physicians.