At first glance, the deal reached with Ottawa for the federal government to spend another $1.2 billion in health care spending in this province over the next three years seems like, well, next to nothing.
That is because the bulk of the new money — about $300 million a year — will be targeted at boosting nursing levels in dozens of acute care facilities. In fact, the plan is to create an "innovative model of care" at 83 different acute care sites, most of them hospitals. For the longest time, having close to 10,000 people in hospital was something that occurred usually during respiratory illness season but over the normally "quiet" summer months the norm was about 9,700 people in hospital beds on any given day.
Last February, the premiers and their health ministers were unanimous in their call for Ottawa to boost its share of health care funding to close to 35 per cent from the current 25 per cent. B.C. was the first to sign one of these side deals and who knows if others may be available in the years ahead.