Quick Links Visit our website Who we are How we work What we do BCHC Member Profile   Check Your Head - The Youth Global Education Network Check Your Head is a youth driven organization located in Vancouver. CYH educates young people on global issues, by looking at the connection between global events and issues and local realities. CYH provides education, resources, training and support for youth, who then facilitate workshops, organize events and coordinate projects promoting education around issues of globalization and social justice in order to examine the types of concrete action that can be taken to help build a better world. Read more... Providence health care has announced it is consulting with the public on plans to redevelop St. Paul's and relocate most of the services to the False Creek Flats area of Vancouver. Part of the plan is to build the new hospital as a public-private-partnership (P3) - a form of privatized health care. According to Providence spokesperson, Shaf Hussain, they are willing to "speak with Joe Public - even on-on-one". Let Providence know what you think about a for-profit scheme for the new hospital. Call 604-806-8566 or email shussain@providencehealthcare.ca to voice your opinion about privatized health care.   Click here to get more information about the St. Paul's campaign   Click here to download a copy of our background brief on P3s Resources   Why Wait? Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and BCHC release important paper promoting public solutions to cure surgical wait lists     Surgical waitlists can be dramatically reduced if the provincial government expands the use of successful innovative delivery models that are already cutting wait times in the public health care system. The BC Health Coalition has recently co-authored a paper - Why Wait? Public Solutions to Cure Surgical Waitlists. The paper looks at groundbreaking innovations in public health care in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario that have significantly reduced wait times for procedures such as hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and others. Download "Why Wait?"   How Sustainable is Medicare? A Closer Look at Aging, Technology and Other Cost Drivers in CanadaÕs Health Care System   This new study released by the study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows there is little to suggest that health care costs will spiral out of control as CanadaÕs population ages. Author and CCPA-BC Senior Economist Marc Lee, finds that population aging is only a small contributor to rising health care costs, and that the system can be maintained and even enhanced without breaking the bank. Download "How Sustainable is Medicare?"	October 2007 Leaked documents expose government plans to expand private surgical clinics Government documents recently obtained by the BC Health Coalition expose plans to expand the contracting out of surgeries to for-profit clinics even though the "Conversation on Health" public consultation has not yet concluded. In a July 2007 letter sent to all B.C. private clinics, the Ministry of Health revealed their lack of knowledge about the operations of private clinics, as well as the extent of for-profit clinics' incursion into public health care. The BCHC is urging citizens to call on the provincial government to stop the expansion of private clinics and expand proven public innovations that are working to dramatically reduce wait times in B.C. Click here to read more about this breaking story Mark Your Calendars! BCHC to host Regional Gathering November 3 The BC Health Coalition will be welcoming fifty health care activists from across the province to Moving Medicare: Tools for Action on Health Care in BC. This one-day workshop-based gathering will focus on providing tools for action to health care coalitions and activists from around British Columbia to push for the expansion of proven public solutions to our health care challenges. The day will also provide an opportunity for participants to join with others in facilitated strategic campaign planning on a regional level. Workshops will cover topics such as media and messaging for radio & TV, strategies for accessing government and mounting campaigns, tools for action on health care P3s, community mapping and coalition building, and how to engage youth in health care issues and campaigns. If you or someone you know is interested in attending, please contact the BC Health Coalition office at 604-681-7945 or email campaigner@bchealthcoaltion.ca Watch our website for up-to-date information! BCHC Focuses on Youth Engagement The BC Health Coalition has partnered with the Vancouver-based youth-driven non-profit organization Check Your Head to plan a series of workshops designed as part of the BCHC's youth outreach and engagement strategy around public health care issues. Through facilitated discussions and group activities, the workshops will help young people explore the values behind universal care as well as the realities of for-profit health care and its threat to Medicare. Using role-plays, games and case studies, participants engage in discussions about health care as the right of all people. Another key goal of the strategy is to have youth identify health care issues they find most important, and what methods they would most likely use to take action around them. Workshop participants are provided with information about BCHC campaigns and are invited to brainstorm ways to take proactive steps toward the good health of their communities. The workshops are a valuable tool for raising the vital voices of young people in the movement to make Medicare stronger. The BCHC will use the results of the workshops to help make youth engagement a central component of our campaigns. Click here to learn more about check your head Health Coalition Highlights Home Support and P3s at UBCM Annual Meeting BCHC sponsored resolution accepted by municipal body The BC Health Coalition attended this year's Union of BC Municipalities 2007 Annual General Meeting in Vancouver, Sept 24 - 28th. Both as delegates and participants in the tradeshow and exhibition, BCHC staff and members focused on home support and health care P3s as key issues to discuss with locally elected politicians. Through our work on our Home Support campaign, 28 municipalities have endorsed our resolution calling for restored provincial funding to this important program. A revised version of the resolution was submitted by the community of Fort St. John, and accepted by the UBCM. This is a great accomplishment, as the UBCM Resolutions Committee noted their members have not previously considered a resolution regarding human resources in the home support field. Click here to download the BCHC Home Support resolution to the provincial government. Click here to endorse the BCHC Home Support resolution and learn more about our home support campaign. North Island community members mobilize to protect health services North Island community members are mobilizing against a plan hatched by the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) to close local hospitals in Comox and Campbell River and replace them with a regional hospital at the Dove Creek interchange on the Island highway. The new hospital location would cause environmental damage by adding to urban sprawl and increasing driving time for patients, workers, and hospital visitors. There is also every indication that the new regional hospital on the North Island will be privately financed as a public-private-partnership (P3). More than 8000 people signed onto a petition demanding that VIHA ensure that acute care services are maintained in both the Comox Valley and Campbell River hospitals. BCHC champions public health care at Canadian Medical Association AGM The BC Health Coalition joined with the Council of Canadians and Canadian Doctors for Medicare to co-host a number of public events during the 2007 Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Medical Association held in Vancouver August 19th through 22nd. BCHC Medicare Campaigner, Leslie Dickout, also attended the AGM as an observer. On August 19th, the BCHC spent the afternoon speaking to hundreds of citizens outside the Vancouver Art Gallery about proven public solutions that are available to address our health care challenges. Passers-by signed their support for Medicare on petitions and banners, children collected red "Profit is Not the Cure" balloons and an apple for good health! Later that evening Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a free screening of Michael MooreÕs health care film, SICKO! , which saw a full capacity turnout. A number of BCHC members also sent a message in support of public health care to physicians and incoming CMA President Dr. Brian Day, who is the operator of the Vancouver-based Cambie Surgical Centre and the Specialist Referral Clinic. Click here to view the video of the public events, read the full-page ad, or read our response to the CMA policy paper.
BC Health Coalition • 411 Dunsmuir Street Vancouver, BC V6B 1X4 P: 604-681-7945 • F: 604-681-7947 • Email: info@bchealthcoalition.ca