Health care needs to change

What matters most is the health care that is being delivered right here, where we live.

Though we are grappling with some of the same challenges as hospitals in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver and Victoria, the need to bring advanced services closer to home is critical for the up to 1 million people who live in B.C.’s interior. Because when the unthinkable happens, we must know we can rely on the system of care that is meant to serve us.

The last several years have been acutely disruptive in health care. The pandemic illuminated the need to address care models that no longer serve patients, families, caregivers or clinicians.

In addition to the issues all health jurisdictions across Canada are facing, here, in the interior of B.C., we must also address the unique challenges of serving a vast, geographically dynamic region, with dozens of rural and remote communities, across hundreds of kilometres, featuring mountain ranges, seasonal weather and increasingly, extreme climate-change driven weather events such as forest fires and floods.

In Canada, health care funding is distributed by the province. It’s complicated and takes time. When governments change, it also has an impact.

Health care needs to change. Philanthropy will be absolutely critical.

Philanthropy will allow us to be responsive and nimble in addressing the changes we need, right here at home, and it will enable us to act now. Philanthropy will also buy us the time desperately needed to consider, build and maintain more equitable and sustainable systems of care to radically improve access to world-class care, right here at home. And most importantly, philanthropy comes with a vital promise; accountability. As a donor, you will know where your gift is being invested and how it is directly impacting health care in our community.

Though the challenges we face might seem big, the future of health care begins closer to home than you think.

The future of health care begins with us. For more information about the “Closer to home than you think” $40million campaign, please visit kghfoundation.com