MILESTONES

Provincial government provides funding to double the size of UBC’s medical school, establish a new Life Sciences building and provide new opportunities to study medicine at University of Victoria and University of Northern BC.

Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff makes breakthrough discovery that nerve cells controlling movement are capable of regeneration after spinal cord injury.

Dr. Donald Calne finds possible link between environment and incidence of Parkinson’s disease.

UBC researchers discover enzyme that could lead to new AIDS therapies.

UBC develops new midwifery degree program.

Community dental clinic established in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, and dental residency program launched in Haida G’waii (Queen Charlotte Islands).

UBC launches a series of health policy forums at Robson Square, including a session with Roy Romanow, head of the National Royal Commission on Medicare.

To some, it is one of Canada’s greatest strengths and attributes as a nation. To others, it is a luxury that we can no longer afford. To still others, it is both valuable and viable, but needs to be more efficient to survive. The subject: our healthcare system, and the choices our leaders and community must make to determine its future. UBC is working to inform the debate and find new policy, technology and program options for the system’s future.

IS OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN CRISIS?

"Getting a clear picture of exactly what the problems are with healthcare is tricky."

Bob Evans, Health Economist,
Centre for Health Services
and Policy Research

BOB EVANS As a healthcare economist, Bob Evans studies how funding models impact players in the healthcare system. “My research is showing that we are in a healthcare crisis, but not the one people may think. We have one of the most expensive, best-financed system in the world. The overall number of doctors is the highest ever; perceived ‘shortages’ result from how their time is being used. The nursing shortage can be traced to a decade of shortsighted training policies. The ‘crisis’ is in public confidence and understanding, not in financial sustainability.”

Evans says there are many substantial ideas about securing the future of healthcare that are being “held hostage” by political and economic agendas. He feels the most immediate priorities are for provinces to develop a collective response to runaway drug costs, and the systematic misinformation driving them, and for more federal money to be targeted to well-recognized “hot spots” of need. Beyond this, the public needs much more and better information about the real strengths and weaknesses of the system.

“Self-interested disinformation is a major barrier to genuine reform.”

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