A Campbell River doctor says health professionals are leaving the city over the province’s recent regulations.
In a presentation to city council, Dr. Anna Kindy says the Health Professionals and Occupations Act – also known as Bill 36 – is giving the B-C government “unprecedented power” over their profession.
“Nurses are leaving. They actually leaving our community to go elsewhere and physicians, same thing. There’s a million patients in B.C. without GPs right now and we can’t import them fast enough to fill the need. So we need to make the grounds amenable to health care workers so they want to stay,” Kindy told city council on Thursday.
Kindy and Dr. Ingrid Pincott both asked for help in their campaign to repeal the bill.
The HPOA, also known as Bill 36, would criminalize health professionals who give false or misleading information. It also consolidates medical boards from 15 to six and gives the B.C. government full power to appoint all members to those boards. Before it was a 50-50 mix of appointments and elected stakeholders.
Kindy says the legislation amounts to government overreach and removes input from doctors, nurses and other stakeholders.
Coun. Doug Chapman wants to get other municipalities and agencies involved and bring resolutions to the upcoming Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) conference.
“So when we meet with the minister, we can hammer him with a big hammer instead of just lots of little hammers. Sometimes to get the attention you have to bring out the sledgehammer and just the appearance of the sledgehammer…,” Chapman trailed off to a round of applause from the gallery.
Chapman adds he’s a “little bit ticked off” by the government overreach.
A staff report on what the city can do will be coming to an upcoming meeting.
In the meantime, Kindy and Pincott have a town hall meeting on March 26 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Maritime Heritage Center where professionals will be speaking about Bill 36 and other legislation.
