New health minister must deal with private clinics — HEU

B.C.’s largest health care union extended its best wishes today to the province’s new health minister, Corky Evans.

The 46,000-member Hospital Employees’ Union says Evans is known as a strong advocate of public medicare and a supporter of better coordination of health care delivery between community agencies and hospitals.

“The new health minister has been vocal in his opposition to so-called public-private partnerships and other forms of health care privatization,” says HEU secretary-business manager Chris Allnutt. “We’ll be urging the minister to put a high priority on dealing with private clinics that are flaunting the Canada Health Act in British Columbia by allowing queue-jumping by those who can afford to pay.”

The union also commended Mike Farnworth for his work as health minister over the last year. In particular, Allnutt says the former health minister laid much of the ground work that resulted in September’s health accord between Ottawa and the provinces and hundreds of millions of dollars for B.C.’s health care system.

-30- For more information, please contact at 604/734-3431: Stephen Howard, communications director, 604/240-8524 (cell)