Liberals planning big health cuts: B.C. NDP

One of British Columbia's largest health authorities faces severe cutbacks in services, NDP health critic Adrian Dix alleged Monday.

Dix has released what he says are internal government documents that suggest the province is considering major reductions to the Fraser Health Authority because of a $160-million budget shortfall.

The Vancouver-Kingsway MLAalso said the documents show the Liberals concealed their plans for health care during the May provincial election campaign.

"There is not a lira, not a cent, not an American penny, not a peso of a chance that if they had announced this plan before the election that Mr. Campbell would have been re-elected," Dix told a Vancouver news conference.

The authority funds public health care from Burnaby in Metro Vancouver to Hope in the Fraser Valley.

Dix said the proposed cuts include:

• Closing at least five operating rooms.
• Downgrading the emergency room at Mission Memorial Hospital.
• Closing diabetes programs in Delta and Mission.
• Cutting 200 acute care beds.
• Cutting seniors day programs by 25 per cent.
• Cutting a grant to the CNIB for the visually impaired.

The cuts are reckless public policy, Dix said,and a serious blow to the long-term health of people who live in the Fraser Health Authority.

The B.C. government has not yet commented on Dix's allegations.