Health Minister Adrian Dix announces a cancer care centre concept plan has been approved, May 25, 2023. (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Cancer Care

Even with concept plan approved, hospital district renews push for Kamloops cancer care centre

Sep 13, 2023 | 4:33 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Thompson Regional Hospital District (TRHD) is taking nothing for granted.

Despite assurances in May that a concept plan for a new cancer care centre in Kamloops has been approved, the TRHD is stepping up its advocacy for a centre.

This week, the TRHD board voted to set aside $75,000 from the district’s operational budget to fund a public advocacy campaign.

TRHD Chair Mike O’Reilly says, after decades of promises that failed to materialize, the board wants to ensure the centre actually rises this time.

“The premier announced that it was going to happen, and that was 2020 and 2021. Then they reneged on their promise, saying it will be within 10 years,” said O’Reilly. “We shouldn’t sit back on our laurels because an announcement has been made. Announcements have been made for 30 years that it’s coming, with solid, strong words and commitments and promises, but there has not once been a shovel in the ground.”

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Health Minister Adrian Dix visited a spot near Royal Inland Hospital on May 25, saying the concept plan had been approved and a business plan is expected to be approved before the end of 2023. When it is operational, the cancer centre will provide radiation and other treatments cancer patients must currently travel to Kelowna to receive.

Provincial governments have promised a cancer centre for Kamloops since the early 1990s, and O’Reilly notes the hospital district has repeatedly pleaded for one to be built in Kamloops.

“What we feel is that we need a different type of advocacy that will be the full [225,000] people that this cancer centre will provide help for that will be a part of that advocacy program,” said O’Reilly. “It is no longer 31 directors asking for a cancer centre, it is [225,000] people.”

While the hospital district funds 40 per cent of most capital projects and equipment in the region, the province typically funds 100 per cent of cancer-related projects.

The board anticipates its public advocacy campaign will begin in the fourth quarter of this year and last about 10 months, ahead of a provincial election set for next fall.