VICTORIA - The B.C. Medical Association says the provincial government must provide more acute-care beds, the staff to support them, and set maximum allowable wait times for acute-care treatment.

The recommendations are contained in an eight-point policy paper the association says is aimed at providing faster, dependable care for people who need surgical or medical procedures.

The association says a shortage of staffed acute-care beds lead to surgery cancellations and overcrowding in emergency departments.

Paper co-author Dr. Shelly Ross says patients have the right to timely access to acute-care services and governments have a responsibility to provide it.

She says the only way to do this is to increase the number of acute-care beds, provide the necessary resources to support them and do a better job of managing them.

Ross says more beds would be good for the health-care system because patients who get faster access to acute-care often spend less time in hospital and are also re-admitted less often.

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