Hospital foundations join forces to call for Fraser Health reform

Hospital foundations in Langley, South Surrey and Delta have joined forces to urge the province to increase health-care funding in the fast-growing South Fraser region. The South Fraser Healthcare Alliance was announced Monday, Oct. 13. It brings together the foundations supporting Delta Hospital, Peace Arch Memorial and Langley Memorial Hospital. The alliance says it was formed to advocate for equitable access to care and investment. Some communities in the region are among the province’s fastest-growing, while health and seniors’ care have struggled to keep pace with population growth over recent decades.

Carissa Basham, executive director of the Langley Community Health and Hospital Foundation (LCHHF), said health-care infrastructure needs to accompany the construction of homes and schools. The three foundations represent community hospitals, rather than major trauma centres or regional hospitals such as Surrey Memorial. Alliance chair Peter Fassbender is a former Langley City mayor and MLA. The group has already contacted municipal and provincial candidates to raise the issues during the current elections. Fassbender said the issue will be equally prominent regardless of who forms the next provincial government.

The alliance also includes local businesswoman and philanthropist Manjit Gill, a major donor to LCHHF. In a statement announcing the alliance, Gill said her family has relied on Langley health care for generations and experienced the quality of care firsthand. She added that they have also seen how stretched the system is, with beds constantly full and some patients having to leave the community to get the care they need.

The alliance says Fraser Health, which serves the South Fraser region as well as Burnaby and cities east of it north of the river, receives the lowest per-person health-care funding of B.C.’s five regional health authorities. Its analysis puts Fraser Health’s annual funding at about $2,621 per person, compared with $3,922 to $4,312 per person in the other four authorities. Basham said residents are far behind what they should be able to access.

The group is calling for more local investment in acute care and long-term-care beds. The average wait for a long-term-care bed in Fraser Health is about 402 days, compared with 290 days provincially. The alliance also wants the province to modernize and expand community hospitals to meet rising demand and include health care in future planning. It says health-care infrastructure should grow alongside housing mandates and population growth.

Fassbender said the group is not suggesting there is an immediate fix. It wants the province to recognize the chronic shortfall in care and commit to working to address it.