Good news for British Columbians this week as our health care system was deemed second-best in Canada, behind only Ontario. The Canada Health Consumer Index, as assessed by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, is an annual report comparing the ten provincial health care systems “in terms of their responsiveness to the needs of consumers.”

From their news release:

British Columbia finishes in a tie for second place in this year’s index, part of a distinct “first tier” with Ontario and New Brunswick. BC’s high score is primarily the result of the province’s strong score in the wait times category. BC earned the highest score of all the provinces in the wait times category due to relatively short waits for orthopaedic surgery, cataract surgery, and cancer radiation therapy. BC also earned points in the “Patient Access to Information” category for its impressive wait times website, which is among the most consumer-friendly in the country, providing timely and comprehensive information to consumers about wait times. However, in the patient outcome category, British Columbia’s performance was only middling, showing performance levels approximately equal to the Canadian average for most of the indicators examined.

Digging a bit deeper into BC’s score, we see that BC scored a perfect 100 on patient access to information, which includes 24/7 Telehealth Services, Hospital Electronic Health Records, EHR Database Development, and Quality of Provincial Wait-times websites. No other province had higher than 92.

BC also scored the highest for wait times, picking up 306 out of a possible 350 points. Ontario and Quebec tied for second with 292.

Where BC struggled was in Range and Reach of Services and Access to New Medicines—taking 75 points out of a possible 150; Outcomes—scoring 150 out of a possible 250; and Primary Care and Problem Prevention—110 out of 150.