BC conservative leader John rustad has released the first plank of his party's platform for the upcoming election he calls it Patients First his plan to quote fix health care it's a plan to radically overhaul health care and expand private services in BC while maintaining government Single Payer using your health card that's all you will need for services that's the only piece of plastic you'll need to take out to get the services regardless of where you get those from he says the way government delivers Healthcare needs to change that money is not the solution but what the province needs is a reduction in administrators and red tape rustad says it'll cost more initially but save money over time though we did not provide details on how much it might cost or how long it might take I don't have the precise numbers uh because as part of this it's obviously there's a lot of complexities that have to be put in place as we do the transition other promises include paying for outof province Medical Care to fight weight times reduction in ER closures and stopping illicit drug use in hospitals rustad also renewed his promise to drop vaccine mandates and offer to rehire unvaccinated former healthcare workers on day one a UBC political scientist says the conservatives are trying to make themselves a convincing alternative those are uh you know real distinguishing characteristics of what the BC conservatives have to offer and they're they're trying to make a a clear uh distinguishing uh distinguishing themselves clearly from the NDP the most recent polling in the province has as the conservatives neck and neck with the NDP he says Healthcare is an obvious Target public opinion polling shows a lot of dissatisfaction in the province with Healthcare uh and so it's a it's an easy starting point for the opposition uh you know it's a weak spot he says we didn't learn much new from today's announcement but a formalization of policies that have already been hinted at British Colombians head to the polls October 19th in Vancouver Jack Morse City news