Yes, I will be sharing my time. I will deal with the other two principles. On the comprehensive nature of our public health care system, a lot of provinces have had to delist services. If we are to have a comprehensive system virtually all services originally listed should be retained. It should not be arbitrarily decreased.
What about public administration? The largest expenditure in the health care system is the cost of administration of hospitals. In British Columbia it is about 58% of health care costs and the budgeting is done on the basis of global funds. A global budget provision splits the administrators and the government into two negotiating teams. The administrators say that they need more money than they had last year and the government says they have to get by with less. The patient is lost in this battle between the negotiating teams. It is not in the interest of the patient. That has to be examined very carefully.
Is this something that the Minister of Health can do alone? It is not. He should recognize that there is a crisis. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, he will do nothing. None of us will do anything until we recognize that there is a problem and that we need to do something.
The minister needs to do something. The government needs to do something. If we achieve nothing else today, hopefully we will impress upon the minister that something has to be done. He has to get together with the provinces to get it done.