Too many British Columbians lack a family doctor, wait too long for medical services, or turn to emergency rooms because they have nowhere else to go. Parties must address these access problems. But recruiting more doctors from the US or elsewhere isn’t an adequate plan for better health.

Many British Columbians may be surprised to learn that BC already has far more doctors per capita than it did in the 1970s. Between 1976 and 2022, the number rose from 162 to 270 per 100,000 residents. Family doctors increased from 88 to 141.

These figures don’t discount the access challenges that need to be addressed in some communities. But they do show why parties must look beyond recruitment and ask: why is the line of patients needing care growing, and what can we do to shorten it?

Health science has long shown us that health doesn’t begin with medical care; it begins in the conditions into which we are born, grow, live, work, and age. All parties should commit to aligning their budgets with this science by investing more urgently in housing, education, child care, adequate incomes, and a healthy environment than they do in medical care.

BC used to follow this prescription, investing more in social services and education than in medicine. Today, the opposite is true. Finding a better balance between the care we need when we’re sick or injured, and the building blocks that help us stay healthy, is a central task for BC’s next government.