| November 26, 2009 NDP Dishonesty and Slander Disrespect Surrey Health Care Investments SURREY – Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon demands NDP MLAs Harry Bains and Sue Hammell apologise for disrespectful comments about the true state of health care in Surrey and to stand up, for once, and support the $75 million in health care investments happening right now in their community. “We are seeing the largest ever investment in B.C. history happening right here, right now in our community of Surrey – and the NDP have voted against funds for these critically needed project,” says Falcon. “And the NDP disrespect health professionals at Fraser Health by misleading people when saying acute care beds have been cut – that is simply wrong.” In a news release, NDP MLAs Bains and Hammell recklessly claim a lack of health care spending in Surrey. In the first full year of Fraser Health’s operations in 2002 there were 1,998 acute care beds in Fraser Health. Today there are 2,330 acute care beds – a 14 per cent increase. Under the NDP government of the 1990s – a government NDP MLA Sue Hammell was a member of – there were 500 acute care beds cut from the region that is now Fraser Health. “It is clear to everyone who lives in Surrey that we need more family physicians. That is why our government doubled the number of medical school training spaces and attracted more physicians to our province than any other province in Canada,” says Falcon. “When patients have family physicians, they don’t need to rely on emergency rooms for some of their health care services. Through investment, our goal is to reduce the number of emergency room visits by increasing the number of family physicians.” Between 2001 and 2008, B.C. experienced a net gain of 571 physicians from other provinces or territories – more than any other province in Canada. B.C. has also seen the number of family physicians in the province increase by 14 per cent since 2001, double the population growth during that same time. Construction is well underway on a new $239 million Surrey Outpatient Hospital, located within one kilometre of Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH) and will accommodate approximately 450,000 annual outpatient visits when it opens in 2011. Removing these visits from SMH will free up space to build a new five story patient tower for an additional 151 acute care beds. The size of the emergency room will be expanded by five times to help meet the growing needs of Surrey today and into the future. “I think it is completely disrespectful for Harry Bains and Sue Hammell to say they support health care in Surrey and then when it comes to voting for funds to build these critically needed facilities, these MLAs said no,” concluded Falcon. For previous news releases, visit Kevin’s website and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KevinFalcon -30- | |
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