Liberals ' own man blows whistle on health region underfunding

So is the Fraser Health Authority really the only one in the province without the money to provide proper care?
Or are the problems in the other four regional authorities simply being hidden from the public?
The questions are unavoidable in light of leaked documents from the Fraser Health Authority that reveal that inadequate provincial funding will lead to serious problems for patients this year.
Especially as the documents indicate that other health authorities are facing similar problems and that they have been working behind the scenes on introducing user fees for seniors to try and bring in more money.
The NDP raised the issue in the legislature, basing their questions on leaked documents from the Fraser Health Authority.
And not just any documents. The most damning criticisms came from Gordon Barefoot, chair of the authority board. They confirm earlier warnings that the heath authority doesn't have enough money to provide needed care.
Barefoot sets out the reality in his introduction to the region's three-year plan.
"Unfortunately, as the result of available financial resources, this plan, by necessity, reflects too little investment in acute care services and community programs," Barefoot warned. "The risks and likely impacts of the plan are significant."
"The lack of current capacity in acute care as well as delay in the growth of community services will continue to manifest as emergency room congestion, delays and cancellations of surgical and diagnostic procedures, medical units over capacity and delays in rehabilitation and access to community services," Barefoot noted bluntly.
Efforts to improve performance in areas like patient safety will be abandoned. The authority won't be able to deliver the care the government has demanded. User fees are planned.
Bad news for patients and the government. Worse, because Barefoot, a senior business executive, is most definitely on the Liberals' side. He took over as chair in January, after Keith Purchase resigned because he believed the province was not providing enough money to deliver needed care.
A big question now is whether the problems in Fraser Health are an exception, or whether the news just hasn't leaked from the other authorities.
The region does have some special challenges, especially population growth.
But patients across B.C. sitting in emergency rooms or waiting for surgery might suspect similar constraints in their region. And it's tough for them to have any confidence in the local health authority board, accountable only to the provincial government. The boards are generally invisible and secrecy seems the rule.
Certainly, that's true for Fraser Health. The three-year plan that includes these warnings went to the government in March. Now it's two months later - two months into the fiscal year - and it would have remained secret if not for the leak.
And apparently, all the authorities have been holding secret discussions about charging patients and seniors to make up for inadequate core funding from government.
The plan says Fraser Health has "collaborated with other health authorities and have identified a number of revenue-generation opportunities which will require ministry approval and regulatory or policy changes." The plans include introducing user charges for seniors in long-term care and charges for people who need help to stay in their homes.
Big charges. The Fraser Health Authority plans to take in $25 million in user fees, according to the plan. That's part of the effort to eliminate the $65-million shortfall created by provincial funding that doesn't meet patients' needs.
And while the health authorities are discussing user fees for seniors, not one has raised the option in an open board meeting or consulted the community.
The biggest question is why any of this is happening. There's a large provincial government surplus, this year and for at least the next several years.
If the Liberal-appointed chair of the largest health authority says patients will suffer because of underfunding, government could choose to solve the problem. It hasn't.
Patients across the province have to wonder what's happening behind the closed doors in their health authorities.
Footnote: All the health authorities received significant funding increases this year, with Fraser Health's allocation rising 7.1 per cent. But even with that, the authorities have received an average 3.5-per-cent a year increase since they were created in 2002, not enough to keep up with inflation, population growth and the needs of an aging population.