05/20/2025
With Heavy Hearts: BC Health Care Matters to Pause Operations
On the day following BC Family Doctors day it is with deep sadness and profound frustration that we announce BC Health Care Matters is pausing operations, effective immediately.
This decision has not come easily—but it is one we can no longer avoid.
After four years of tireless advocacy, we find ourselves at a breaking point. A critical shortage of volunteers and funds, combined with the Ministry of Health’s continued refusal to even acknowledge our existence, has made it nearly impossible to continue. Despite our relentless efforts, our small team—all of whom are patients themselves—can no longer sustain the emotional and physical toll of shouting into a void.
When we began, we started with purpose and hope. Within 6 months, we gathered 50,000-signatures on a petition demanding more family doctors, held two well-attended rallies, and captured province-wide media attention. Our founding president Camille Currie was honored by Doctors of BC for her exceptional leadership. We built a large and engaged online community and were recognized as the leading voice for health care advocacy in British Columbia.
And yes, our pressure mattered. It helped spur long-overdue changes to physician compensation that have aided in recruiting family doctors. But even that progress has been undermined by the growing crisis around us.
We knew our impact needed to grow beyond Vancouver Island, and we reached out—again and again—for new board members and funding to expand. Despite appeals to our most dedicated supporters, those calls went largely unanswered. Still, we pressed on.
Throughout this journey, we have watched as the government ignored cost-effective, proven solutions that have worked in other provinces and countries. Physician assistants—commonplace elsewhere in Canada—number only two in BC. Team-based care, which increases patient access and health worker satisfaction, has not been meaningfully promoted here. Instead of innovation, we see inertia. Instead of bold leadership, we hear nothing.
Despite Canada spending more of its GDP on health care than nearly any other developed nation, our outcomes rank among the worst. Wait times grow longer. ERs are overcrowded. Entirely predictable tragedies unfold—patients sent to the U.S. for cancer treatment, dangerous care levels reported at hospitals like Surrey Memorial, Victoria General, Jubilee and Nanaimo General—yet meaningful action never comes.
We had hoped for change. A new Health Minister. A Premier promising to "listen to the people of BC." We wrote to them directly, believing we might finally be heard. We weren’t. Our letter, like everyone before it, was met with silence. No dialogue. No compassion. No sign of willingness to change.
Furthermore, the constant headlines focusing on global chaos and BC’s own looming economic challenges have only drowned out voices like ours. In a world this loud, it's easy to feel invisible. But it's also why we believe more than ever that people must not lose sight of the things that truly matter. We must choose to spend our time and energy on efforts that lift others up, not tear them down. That is what we’ve always tried to do—and what we hope others will continue.
We are not just advocates—we are survivors of the very system we’ve been trying to fix. Among our core volunteer team of 4, we have faced heart surgeries, complex chronic conditions, pacemaker implants, joint replacements, heart attacks, septic shock, cancer intervention, brain trauma, orthopedic surgery, diagnostic imaging waits and have spent countless hours waiting for care in crowded hallways—just in the past three years. We have lived the consequences of a failing system. We have fought from inside it.
And still, we tried. We filed complaints with MLAs, MPs, Health Ministers, and hospital administrators. And every time, the response was the same: "We have received your email." No empathy. No answers. Just bureaucracy in place of humanity.
We are heartbroken—but we are not hopeless. We still believe BC’s health care system can be better. It must be better. But for now, we must step back and care for ourselves in a system that has refused to care for us.
To our volunteers—past and present—thank you for your time, your energy, and your passion. To the organizations and individuals who stood beside us, your support has meant more than you know. And to every person who shared their story, who spoke out, who refused to stay silent—you are the reason we held on this long. We are forever grateful.
While BCHCM will no longer be active in the same way, our social media platforms will remain open as spaces for continued discussion and shared stories. We hope they will serve as a reminder that community matters—even when those in power forget.
We hope someone is listening.
We hope someone finally cares.
Because the people of BC deserve better. So much better.
In solidarity and with deep appreciation,
The BC Health Care Matters Team, Camille, Adrian, Sharman and Jenna
Letter to Minister of Health -
BC Health Care Matters press releases, materials and media.
