'Scotch Tape and wet paper': Healing fragile B.C. health system is key election issue

Temporary emergency room shutdowns have hit rural and urban hospitals, hundreds of cancer patients have been sent across the U.S. border for radiation therapy, and there's a shortage of nurses and doctors. Here's how B.C.'s major political parties plan to improve health care in the province.

Mike Goetz has added bill collector to his list of responsibilities as mayor of Merritt in British Columbia's Interior.

In June, Goetz sent the province an invoice for $103,831.87, the cost, he said, for closures of the Nicola Valley Hospital emergency room.

He said the bill for the 19 closures last year and the first five closures this year includes a partial refund of what the city paid for hospital services, as well as the cost when firefighters respond to medical calls because paramedics are busy transporting patients to Kamloops, about 85 kilometres to the northeast.

And GST, of course.

Goetz said the costs would be equivalent to a one-per-cent increase in taxes for the community, unless the province picked up the tab, and came on top of the more than $600,000 the municipality already pays the province annually for its hospital.

"That's unacceptable to ask our taxpayers to pay for this system twice. We've paid for it once, we expect 365 days of coverage, because that's what you charged us for," he said.

The mayor isn't alone in his frustration with the state of B.C.'s health system. Temporary emergency room shutdowns have hit rural and urban hospitals, hundreds of cancer patients have been sent across the U.S. border for radiation therapy, and there's a shortage of nurses and doctors.