You and your family should be able to get the care you need, when you need it, close to where you live.
We are strengthening our public healthcare system by hiring more doctors, building more hospitals and Urgent and Primary Care Centres, and delivering surgeries sooner. We’re also expanding the mental health and substance use system
Primary Care | Hospitals | Mental Health | Substance Use
- Connected more than 250,000 people to a family doctor or nurse practitioner in 2024 through the Health Connect Registry – that’s around 680 people per day.
- Secured more than 1,000 new family doctors in B.C. since we launched a new payment model for family physicians.
- Made it easier for internationally educated nurses to work in B.C.’s health-care system with new financial supports and a faster, more efficient assessment pathway.
- Opened 41 Urgent and Primary Care Centres in communities throughout B.C.
- Helping more internationally-educated family doctors get licensed to practice in B.C.
- Introduced more prescribing options for pharmacists and a new booking system for appointments to help take pressure off the primary-care providers and make it easier to get the prescriptions you need.
- Eliminated the need for workers to get sick notes for short-term absences, freeing up more time for doctors to see patients and reducing administrative burden in doctors’ offices.
- Launched our BC Health Workforce Strategy to expand training programs and improve recruitment and retention to build a strong and resilient public healthcare system.
- Became the first jurisdiction in Canada to make prescription contraception free to all residents, saving people as much as $10,000 over their lifetime
- Launched self-screening for HPV to detect cervical cancer sooner, and remove barriers to make testing more comfortable and convenient, compared to traditional pap tests.
- Improved access to maternity care by increasing seats in the University of British Columbia’s midwifery program by 70%.
- Invested more than $1 billion over three years to improve care for seniors, including investments in primary care, home health, long-term care and assisted living.
- Launched the first of its kind early detection lung cancer screening program in Canada.
- Removed age restrictions on insulin-pump coverage, so that everyone who needs these devices to manage diabetes is able to live their lives to the fullest.
- Took action to lower drug costs by making record investments in Fair PharmaCare, helping to negotiate a new national generics agreement and expanding the use of biosimilar drugs.
- Introduced the most comprehensive regulations in the country on vaping products to protect youth.
- Launched BC’s Cancer Care Action Plan with immediate steps to better prevent, detect and treat cancers, delivering improved care for people now and into the future. Includes an initial investment of $440 million to expand cancer-care teams and attract cancer-care professionals to our province.
- Started building a second hospital and new cancer centre to serve the growing city of Surrey.
- Started construction on new BC Cancer centre in Kamloops, to provide people with care closer to home.
- Welcoming critical team members – like housekeeping a food service workers – back into the public health care workforce, for better, more stable care for patients.
- Opened a new Acute Care Tower at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver.
- In 2023-24, delivered more surgeries than ever before in the province.
- Moving forward on a new medical school at SFU’s Surrey Campus, to train more doctors here in B.C.
- First to establish nurse/patient ratios in Canada
- Delivered more MRI and CT scans for people in BC than ever before. Since 2016-17, the number of MRI exams performed each year in B.C. has increased by 83%, and the number of CT exams has increased by 43%.
- Moving forward with a first-of-its-kind BC Children’s Hospital centre for health complexity, to fill gaps in much-needed services and supports for children and young people with complex, chronic conditions.
- Took action to improve ambulance responses times and better support paramedics and dispatchers so that when British Columbians call for help, they know it’s on its way, quickly.
- Expanded travel support for people who need to travel to bigger cities for cancer care.
- Expanded the fleet of BC Emergency Health Services with 12 new air ambulances.
- Addressing systemic racism in B.C.’s health care system through training and education, and prioritizing the hiring of a health-care workforce that better represents B.C.’s diverse communities.
- Budget 2023 included the biggest investment in mental health in B.C’s history with more than $1 billion in funding over the fiscal plan to ensure people living with mental health or addiction can find and stay connected to the care they need.
- Expanded Foundry centres, with a total of 23 centres planned along with the Foundry App, giving young people and their families across B.C. access to a one-stop-shop to support their mental health and wellness.
- Building a better network of mental health supports for youth including mental health programs in school and expanding the number of integrated child and youth teams. A total of 20 integrated child and youth teams will be implemented across the province by 2024.
- Created 10 Community Transition Teams to offer support services for people leaving correctional centres with mental-health and substance-use supports as they transition back into the community.
- Invested in each regional health authority to support evidence-based suicide prevention strategies that address unique priorities and gaps in care for people who may be suicidal.
- Created culturally informed mental-wellness supports for Indigenous families through virtual parent and caregiver coaching.
- Improving access and quality of eating disorder care and better access to suicide prevention services and early psychosis intervention.
- Increased access to community-based low- and no-cost mental health and substance use supports as part millions in grants awarded to community counselling programs throughout the province. Since 2019, nearly 25,000 people have had access to counselling services as a result.
- Launched Here2Talk, a new free mental-health counselling and referral service for post-secondary students, available online or by phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Created a digital mental health resource hub for workers in the tourism, hospitality and social services sectors that have been hard hit by the pandemic.
- Launched a class action lawsuit against opioid drug companies, whose marketing practices have had devastating impacts on the lives of thousands of British Columbians. In summer 2022, the federal, provincial and territorial governments made a settlement agreement with Purdue Canada of $150 million. Further litigation is ongoing with other drug companies.
- Added 33 new and expanded substance-use programs specifically for young people.
- Funding 35 Community Action Teams (CAT) to provide on-the-ground support in response to the overdose crisis in the hardest-hit communities.
- Supporting First Nations organizations and Indigenous Peoples in addressing the ongoing impacts of the overdose crisis in their communities.
- Created complex-care housing spaces for up to 500 people throughout BC to support people who are facing overlapping mental-health and substance-use challenges, or trauma or brain injuries.
- Doubling the number of treatment beds for youth struggling with additions in BC.
- Took action to end the shame and stigma that prevents people with substance-use challenges from reaching out for lifesaving help by decriminalizing the simple possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use.
- Invested $4.7 million in a therapeutic recovery community in Greater Victoria for men who have repeat experiences with incarceration, homelessness and addiction.
- Boosted funding in 2023, with $4.39 million to support 330 people in this program over the next three years.