Twenty questions. Twenty MLAs. Twenty rural B.C. emergency rooms.

And when Question Period in the B.C. legislature ended a half-hour later, one pointed conclusion from the B.C. Conservative Party.

"I would say the last 30 minutes have been a pretty damning indication on the state of our health care here in British Columbia," Surrey-White Rock Conservative MLA Trevor Halford said, as his party drew attention to the state of rural health care. "Every part of this province has been represented today speaking about the state of our health care."

According to Conservative figures, MLAs raised and discussed 1,407 rural hospital closures, as almost half of the 44-member Opposition caucus took turns posing related questions.

"We wanted to show just how widespread this issue was in every community around the province," Conservative Party of B.C. Leader Rustad said. "They know this is a problem. Our health care system is in a crisis, especially when it comes to emergencies." 

It was Rustad who posed the first question to B.C.'s Health Minister Josie Osborne, who answered every single question from the Conservatives.

Osborne acknowledged the issues, adding it will take time to address them.

"We are experiencing a lot of strain in the health care system right now," Osborne said. "We have a global shortage of health care workers and that's why it's incumbent on us to do everything possible to train and recruit new doctors to our province, to hire more nurses and more health care workers across the system so that we can deal with the types of staff shortages that we have been seeing." 

Questions focused on the state of ER care in smaller communities, as well as long travel and wait times in emergency rooms. Perhaps the most illustrative example was the situation in Elkford, whose ER has been closed for two years.

"Two years," Conservative Pete Davis, MLA for Kootenay-Rockies, said. "Why did the premier do nothing to prevent Elkford's ER from closing?" 

"(If) you live in Elkford or Sparwood or Fernie or anywhere out in the southeast Kootenays, you need to know that the emergency room is there for you and that our health care system is here for you," Osborne said in response to Davis. "Health care workers are doing phenomenal work under very challenging conditions right now and I think it's important that we remember that this is difficult on them as well."

She added that government will continue to recruit doctors and nurses, pointing to a program encouraging health care workers to work in rural and remote areas of B.C. She also questioned whether Conservatives have solutions themselves. 

"We have canvassed many different communities across B.C. in today's (Question Period)," she said. "I didn't hear any ideas from the opposition, but one idea I have heard is bringing in a U.S.-style two-tier health care system that would poach doctors and nurses from our system and make it worse."

That answer drew a sharp rebuke from Conservatives, with Rustad later re-stating his party's proposal to implement a European-style health care program. Rustad said government's answers today were the same as they were in every year since 2017.

"The situation has not changed," Rustad said. "There need to be significant shifts in terms of health care," he said. 

Osborne also tried to blunt the attacks on her government by stressing her personal background as the former mayor of Tofino.

"We are so fortunate to have a hospital there, and I can imagine what it would feel like for my community members to know that they cannot go to the emergency room in Tofino, that they would have to drive all the way to Port Alberni," she said.

"I understand how challenging and difficult this is for people, and that is why I am so personally committed to ensuring that this work is done and that we can make progress, as we already are."