A team from the University of British Columbia is looking into health service planning for rural areas through a Rural Evidence Review Program.
The goal of the RER project is to work with rural citizens and communities to provide high quality, useful evidence for rural health care planning in B.C.
The team has been asking rural residents for feedback to identify the rural health service issues that matter the most to them and their communities.
To date there have been over 700 responses to their survey.
“We are thrilled with how many people have responded,” said Principal Investigator Jude Kornelsen. “What we have heard from participants across the province is fascinating and very valuable to understand rural citizens’ priorities for health care in B.C. Also, the high number of responses suggests that this topic of identifying rural health care needs is important to rural B.C. communities. For these reasons, we now plan to use the anonymous survey responses for research purposes. This means that we will analyze the data and share the results of the analysis with key decision-makers in the B.C. Health Authorities and the Ministry of Health. We will also look for opportunities to present the results (e.g., to the Union of B.C. Municipalities) and publish the data so that other jurisdictions (e.g., provinces, countries) can compare their priorities with those that you have identified in B.C.”
You can still take the survey here.