Is 'BC Conversation On Health' Liberal Smokescreen for "Unsound Plans"?

Dr. Penny Ballem former BC Deputy Minister of Health says the kinds of policies made "two hours after question period when it's been a bad hair day for the minister or worse the premier" are "wrecking healthcare systems." as all quoted on Public Eye Online and here.

For the real health care political gurus and those that just plain really care, play the whole hour long speech below in the next posting that Penny gave recently in Toronto to Ontario health care executives. She also criticizes the medical advisory committees at British Columbia's hospitals who she says should be working to improve patient care rather than worrying about labour relations.


She is critical of BC doctors getting a bonus and a raise in their salary when they've got a 40 per cent alignment with the best practice rate in sample medical procedures and that only 20 per cent of patients leaving hospitals after a heart attack "get the right drugs.” These are drugs, she says, that “actually save lives, prevent re-admission and make a difference in the long-term. It's like a duh. But 20 per cent of the patients are getting them.” So administrators need to "take that data to your local institutions, to your MAC and say what are you going to do about this? You're killing people."

The real travesty is that she is right on all counts and clearly, at least to this Editor, the BC Conversation on health is one big "BS" expensive public relations excercise promoted by self serving politicians and their party hacks, and now even party faithful Liberal blogging spin doctors. Instead of wasting our time and money on this BS they should have tried to retain quality people like Ballam and taken her sage advice and direction. One has to really wonder if this "Conversation" crap is just a smoke screen to open up more privatization or something even worse that Dr. Ballem was referring to as "unsound plans" that the premier and his deputy minister have?

We have to get the straight goods on these "Plans" from our MLAs! Maybe our Langley MLA Mary Polak who was recently appointed parliamentary secretary for the Conversation on Health can tell us what these "unsound plans" could be and hopefully lay our concerns to rest. Or is it simply possible that Dr. Ballem perhaps saw the "Conversation On Health" as a purely political "unsound" initiative that would not help at all and that perhaps could even be harmful?...