Here are the major political parties’ views on how to improve healthcare in BC

Heading into the upcoming provincial election on Saturday, October 24th, one of the key issues that impacts British Columbians will be how the current state of the healthcare system can be improved. 

Currently in BC there are over 1,259,400 residents who do not have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner. This figure represents around 22% of the provincial population.

Furthermore, around 345,000 BC residents are actively waiting on the Health Connect Registry to find a provider, many of whom have already been waiting on the list for years. 

The three major political parties in the upcoming election—the BC NDP, the Conservative Party of BC and the BC Green Party—have now had time to release their plans on how to improve the healthcare system along with access to primary care. 

BC NDP

BC NDP leader David Eby believes his healthcare approach has been making progress, and he plans on ramping things up if re-elected. 

Eby says that one million people have been connected to a family doctor under the BC NDP, with more to come. 

Since the BC NDP-led government launched its targeted recruitment campaign to attract healthcare professionals from the United States in March 2025, over 800 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have come north and found work in BC. 

Eby asserts his plan’s long-term success, as BC now has the most doctors per person of any province. 

Under his party, a new medical school has opened at SFU Surrey and is training more doctors here in BC. 

Additionally, under Eby’s leadership, 24 new and expanded hospitals have been completed or gotten underway and 48 urgent primary care centres opened. The BC NDP say that more clinics, hospitals and expansions will come. 

Eby and his party have claimed that the BC Conservatives are planning big budget cuts that would impact healthcare. 

The BC Conservatives have said previously that healthcare will “take the brunt” of their cuts and the BC NDP’s US healthcare worker recruitment would be cancelled if they won. 

Conservative Party of BC

Conservative Party of BC interim leader Lorne Doerkson has also announced a healthcare plan he would enact if elected. 

His plan focuses on keeping BC’s emergency rooms open, recruiting and retaining more doctors and nurses and launching an expert commission within 100 days to cut wait times. 

Doerkson claims he will commit to protecting healthcare funding and keeping BC’s system universal and publicly funded.

He and the BC Conservatives say that under the BC NDP, over a million British Columbians still have no family doctor, emergency rooms were closed 2,400 times in two years and in 2025, the wait from referral to specialist treatment reached 32.2 weeks, which is the longest on record.

Though Doerkson has said that he would be able to hire and retain more doctors and nurses if elected, he has not detailed any sort of plan to do so with more effectivity than the BC NDP. 

Doerkson has also promised to do more to support rural medical practices at risk of closing and to invest $50 million into an emergency fund, without any cuts to BC’s current healthcare funding. 

The expert commission Doerkson plans to bring in would look to bring in proven solutions from other public systems, but says his government would not privatize healthcare. 

BC Green Party

BC Greens leader Emily Lowan has also released a plan for how she and her party would improve healthcare access for British Columbians. 

She asserts that the current system is holding on by a thread and needs to be better funded. 

Her plan is centred around building Community Health Centres in every region, with team-based care and long-term support. If made a reality, this could help connect tens of thousands to primary care providers like doctors and nurse practitioners.

The BC Greens also hope to finish delivering safe nurse-to-patient ratios, keep every public health dollar in public care and cover mental healthcare through the public system.

Lowan’s is the only announced plan that acknowledges the toxic drugs crisis BC has faced for 10 years. She and the BC Greens have vowed to fight the toxic drugs crisis with effective harm reduction and real investment in voluntary care.