CentreBC health plan calls for more nurse practitioners and internationally trained doctors

CentreBC leader Elenore Sturko, the party’s candidate in Surrey South, stopped briefly near the emergency department at Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 13, to announce her party’s plan to improve access to health care. She said too many British Columbians are waiting to be attached to a family doctor, receive a diagnosis or undergo surgery.

Sturko said a CentreBC government would add 600 nurse practitioners in B.C. by 2030 and create 100 more residency positions by that year. Physician assistants would be fully licensed in 2027, she said. The party would also double its assessment program for internationally trained family doctors, from 96 to 200 people a year by 2028.

She said a CentreBC government would ensure that everyone seeking a family doctor or nurse practitioner team has one by the end of 2031, and improve the family doctor payment model along lines she said are already supported by most people in the field. She promised that, starting in 2029, no one would wait more than 12 months, and that people without this kind of regular medical support would be registered automatically for a doctor or team.

Sturko said 4,620 people died while waiting for surgery or diagnostic imaging during the 2024-25 fiscal year under David Eby and the NDP. She said CentreBC is fully committed to public health care and not a private-pay system. The party plans to protect public care by recruiting and retaining more health-care professionals, building surgical and diagnostic capacity, and directing resources to the front line.

Attracting health-care professionals to B.C. from Canada and elsewhere would not be enough if they could not be retained because of issues such as workplace violence, she added. Sturko promised steps to “shrink the bureaucracy of the health-care system,” which she claimed could save about $400 million a year. She suggested the money could buy five new MRI machines for hospitals in the province.

A CentreBC government would also pass an “ER accountability act” requiring every emergency room closure to be publicly reported, Sturko said. The goal would be to cut unplanned ER closure hours in half by 2029-30. She said a $25-million-a-year stabilization fund for rural ERs would pay for locum doctors and nurses, travel and virtual ER backup.

Sturko described recent promises from other parties as “pie in the sky.” She said the announcement was part of CentreBC’s fully costed platform, released on Oct. 10 when she opened the party’s South Surrey campaign office and headquarters. The platform would include publicly released scorecards tracking progress. Along with health care, it covers the economy and affordability, education, public safety, the environment and climate, good government, and AI and the future of work. More details are at centrebc.ca/platform/.

At the office opening, Sturko told Peace Arch News that CentreBC wants to give voters an alternative that is not based on ideology or grievance.