B.C. NDP promises faster health care with new diagnostic equipment
Published 4:21 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2026
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B.C. NDP Leader David Eby is promising new diagnostic equipment that will shorten health-care wait times.
Eby promised to add eight new MRI machines, including one at Eagle Ridge Hospital in Coquitlam near where his announcement was Tuesday (Oct. 6) and 10 CT scanners. He also promised, if his government is re-elected, to introduce co-ordinated regional surgical waitlists that let patients choose the shortest wait.
The B.C. NDP, in a news release, touted that since first forming government in 2017, it has added more than 1,800 specialists, along with 21 new MRI units and 15 CT scanners. The release added completed MRI exams are up 108 per cent and CT exams are up 61 per cent.
He said the choice on Oct. 24 is: “Would you like an MRI machine for your hospital, or would you like to sit on a waitlist with the Conservatives?”
In June, the Consultant Specialists of BC was involved in conducting a survey on medical specialist wait times in B.C. That survey found nearly one-quarter of British Columbians are currently on waitlists to see medical specialists, and that number is growing by 10 per cent each year with little relief in sight.
Consultant Specialists of BC president Dr. Robert Carruthers said that B.C.’s Health Ministry uses selective statistics to downplay the problem, focusing on the wait times for surgery after a specialist consultation while avoiding references to wait times to see a specialist in the first place.
The B.C. government has a surgery wait times webpage with information about wait times for scheduled surgical procedures. However, it says the data presented is a snap shot of scheduled surgeries completed in the most recent three-month period available and the website is updated every two months.
Eby also promised to build on the NDP government’s U.S. health-care worker recruitment campaign. The plan is to attract specialists by targeting professions facing staff shortages, like surgeons medical lab technicians, and medical imaging technologists who run the MIRs and other diagnostics so critical to timely care and treatment.
The NDP news release says how long a patient waits for surgery can depend largely on which surgeon they were referred to, which can vary significantly, between 10 and 50-plus weeks for some surgeries.
Eby said his plan will bring in a co-ordinated regional waitlist, so patients can be matched more efficiently with capacity across the region.
“Maybe they want to choose to have the surgery at their local hospital, maybe there’s a specific surgeon that they really trust and they want to do the surgery for them, or maybe it doesn’t matter.”
He added a centralized, regional waitlist will allow for British Columbians to make those choices.
Eby’s news conference comes a day after B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson pledged to create a $50-million fund to address emergency room closures.
READ MORE: Lorne Doerkson pledges to create $50M fund to address emergency room closures
– With files from Mark Page and Patrick Davies