At our 40th Annual General Meeting, delegates voted to endorse the Health Sciences Association's End The Shortages campaign. Health care is more than just doctors and nurses. Shortages of specialized health science professionals are putting patients at risk. Waitlists and backlogs are growing at alarming rates. Piling even more work onto overstretched health science professionals is not a solution.

There's no health care without specialized health care professionals

Everyone knows doctors and nurses are struggling through this pandemic. But most people don't know that over 70 other specialized health professions are part of the health care team keeping you and your loved ones safe.

Shortages of these professionals have been severe for years, even before the pandemic. Now, conditions are no longer sustainable.

Long hours and crushing workloads are just part of the problem. Many specialized professionals in BC are paid much less than in other provinces.

As the union representing these essential health care professionals, the Health Sciences Association is urging the government to take immediate action to support our health care system and the people who keep it running. They are calling for:

• increased training to recruit more health science professionals to replace those retiring, getting sick or burning out
• long-overdue pay increases to help retain health science professionals in BC struggling with high cost of living

Take Action today: sign the HSA's petition. It's time to end the critical shortage of health science professionals in BC.