---
title: "Conservative leader Doerkson pledges $50 million emergency fund to keep BC emergency rooms open"
description: "Lorne Doerkson announced in 100 Mile House on October 5 that a Conservative government would invest $50 million to hire and retain medical staff, aiming to end unplanned ER closures."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/bc/provincial-2026/news/lorne-doerkson-conservative-er-plan-october-2026"
last_updated: "2026-10-10T04:06:58.707Z"
---

The Conservative Party of BC announced on October 5 a plan to invest $50 million in an emergency fund to hire and retain medical staff, with the stated goal of keeping emergency rooms and maternity wards open across the province. [Lorne Doerkson](/bc/provincial-2026/candidates/lorne-doerkson) made the announcement in 100 Mile House.

The party published the plan on its own website and said a Conservative government would also launch an expert commission within 100 days to reduce wait times, train more doctors in BC, and speed up the process for recognising medical credentials from other countries.

## What the party says about the current situation

The Conservative Party of BC cited three figures in its October 5 announcement, all drawn from its own press release. The party says BC emergency rooms closed 2,400 times over two years. It puts the number of British Columbians without a family doctor at over 1 million. It also says the average wait from a referral to seeing a specialist reached 32.2 weeks in 2025, which it described as the longest on record in that year.

These are the party's own figures. The announcement does not name the original source behind each number, and none of the three figures has been independently verified in this article.

## The proposed plan

The party said the $50 million emergency fund would go directly to hiring and keeping doctors and nurses. No breakdown of how the fund would be distributed was published in the announcement.

Beyond the fund, the party said it would maintain universal, publicly-funded health care and protect current government health care spending levels while directing additional money toward recruitment.

## What voters can do

British Columbians vote on Saturday, October 24, 2026. Advance voting runs October 16 to 21. To compare what each party has said about health care, visit the [Conservative Party of BC page](/bc/provincial-2026/parties/conservative-party-of-bc).

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](/bc/provincial-2026/sitemap.md) for all pages.