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By Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone

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SOUND OFF: More questions than answers on B.C. cancer care

May 26, 2023 | 9:28 AM

IT’S APPALLING TO SEE THE DECLINE in B.C.’s cancer system and outcomes under Premier David Eby and his NDP government. What was once touted as the best cancer system in the country, even garnering a positive international reputation, now cannot meet the needs of patients quickly enough.

This fact was evident in last week’s NDP announcement that some cancer patients in B.C. will be forced to travel to Washington State to receive treatment. This isn’t the first time an NDP government has made such a move. They did it in 1996, billing it as a temporary stop-gap measure. And now, it’s happening all over again.

While the announcement is welcomed by those who don’t want to wait any longer to access care — and don’t get me wrong, it’s encouraging that people will get the treatment they need — the decision has created more questions than answers for those living in smaller, more rural communities. The NDP’s announcement is particularly confusing to rural British Columbians who have been denied access to cancer care in Alberta because the B.C. government won’t cover out-of-province treatment. Why is it that the NDP is comfortable sending patients to another country for care, but won’t let them cross into a neighbouring Canadian province to access that care?

What’s worse, an Alberta government spokesperson told a media outlet in the Kootenays that there have been “no conversations on this issue to date” between the two provinces, when it comes to sending B.C. patients to Alberta for radiation therapy. If this is true, and B.C. never even approached Alberta, then Health Minister Adrian Dix has some explaining to do — because British Columbians deserve answers as to how and why the government arrived at its decision to send local patients to the U.S. for treatment.

No matter what he says, people will likely take it with a grain of salt after he was shown to be fudging cancer care statistics last week. While Minister Dix claimed nearly 83 per cent of B.C. patients start their radiation therapy within the four-week clinical benchmark, information released by whistleblowers showed that it’s actually 77 per cent. That’s 3,200 British Columbians — 800 more patients than Dix let on — who are waiting far too long to access this crucial care.

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Kamloopsians have also grown tired of Dix’s words — or lack thereof — around a new cancer centre that the NDP has long promised but never delivered. They claimed it would be up and running by 2024 and have strung us along since that commitment was made in 2020. Dix himself has shown stunning secrecy and has refused to answer even the most basic questions about the project — which is why nobody in Kamloops and the surrounding region believes anything Dix says.

This week, Dix came to Kamloops and while everyone was expecting a major announcement on the new cancer centre, all he could tell us is that the concept planning is done and now a business case is being developed. So, in the three-and-a-half years since making their 2020 pledge, all they’ve done is concept planning.

To add insult to injury, despite the NDP promising in the most recent 2020 election that they’d build a cancer centre that would be open and serving patients by 2024, Dix has confirmed that the cancer centre won’t be in use until 2027/2028. This means that approximately 60,000 radiation treatments that residents of Kamloops and region will receive during this additional four-year NDP-imposed delay will continue to require these patients to drive to and from Kelowna to access this treatment instead of getting it here in Kamloops by 2024 as originally promised by the NDP.

It’s just another delay and another let-down from an NDP government that does a lot of talking and dishes out a lot of rhetoric but has few results to show for it. B.C. cancer patients and their loved ones deserve better. They deserve the system of care of seven years ago that provided timely, world-class cancer treatment right here at home.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.