The first steps of a review of the health authorities have been completed, which included reducing administrative costs, and work is underway to improve efficiencies and redirect savings to frontline services.
“People in every corner of B.C. deserve a health-care system that keeps pace with their growing and complex needs,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Health. “That’s why we’ve launched this review last March, to hear directly from the people doing the work and to identify how we can make our system more efficient. While that review is being completed, we’re already taking steps to reduce administrative duplication in health authorities so they can focus on what matters most: delivering high-quality care for patients across the province.”
Over the engagement period of the review, approximately 20,000 health-care workers attended town halls. More than 15,000 workers completed surveys in support of the review.
While the review continues, the Province is acting on its early findings by bringing together administrative and corporate services across regional health authorities and the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), including legal, supply chain, finance and human resources. The functions will be delivered through a new standalone shared services organization that supports all health authorities, allowing them to focus more on delivering better care for patients. The new organization will be established by spring 2026. Services will gradually transition to the new organization over time, and as details are finalized.
The changes will remove bottlenecks, reduce redundancies, improve supports and create more consistency and co-ordination throughout the system at a lower cost. It will also encourage innovation and the sharing of ideas that strengthen B.C.’s health system.
By consolidating administrative and corporate services, PHSA will have a clearer mandate, allowing it to focus on the specialized provincewide services that benefit patients, including cancer care, ambulance services and pediatric, maternal and women’s health.
PHSA provides a limited set of optional shared services to the regional health authorities, which leads to duplication when some health authorities do not use them. Establishing a new dedicated organization for corporate and administrative services and making participation mandatory for all health authorities and the PHSA will save time, money and effort that can instead be redirected to patient care.
This consolidation will also allow the Province to leverage economies of scale to secure better pricing and contracts, shifting from five separate processes to a co-ordinated provincial approach. It also positions the health system to better support front-line services.
The work builds on interim expenditure measures underway to control administrative costs during the review. Since the review launched in March 2025, health authorities have eliminated, closed or left vacant 1,100 positions. Beginning in 2026-27, this is anticipated to save more than $60 million annually that can be redirected to front-line care.
Learn More:
To learn more about the Health Authority review, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2025HLTH0057-000565
A backgrounder follows.
