B.C. health district officials demand action, answers on long-overdue cancer treatment centre in Kamloops
Former premier John Horgan promised the treatment centre in 2020 provincial election campaign
Nearly three years after former B.C. premier John Horgan said a cancer centre would be built in Kamloops, B.C. — and decades after the project was first promised — the Thompson Regional Hospital District (TRHD) is demanding to know why construction has yet to begin and criticizing transparency around the project.
During their latest meeting on March 30, several directors at the TRHD, which helps finance construction projects and equipment purchases at facilities in the Thompson-Nicola region, grilled the executive director of the city's Royal Inland Hospital (RIH), who repeatedly said she could only confirm the project is in the "concept planning" phase and that "nothing's been approved."
"There's lots of details that have to be fleshed out, and until we flesh through some of those and actually have it approved, it's hard to share," said Tracey Rannie. When it opens, the centre is expected to be managed by RIH administrators and RIH staff.
In the latest sign of delays to the project, Interior Health last month withdrew a request for $240,000 of TRHD funds that were supposed to be spent on a feasibility study.
TRHD board chair Mike O'Reilly, who is also a Kamloops councillor, said the cancer centre — which was initially promised by the NDP government in the 1990s — is now among the top concerns for the region's 150,000 residents.
"There's been steps and work being done behind the scenes since the early '90s," he said. "We're no farther than we were 30 years ago."
O'Reilly said most people from the Thompson-Nicola region who need radiation are forced to travel about 210 kilometres to Kelowna, which has the closest care centre.
"We also know studies show time after time for best health-care outcomes is to not have to travel long distances," he said. "The amount of people needing radiation is only growing. We need a cancer centre in Kamloops now."
TRHD director and Kamloops Coun. Dale Bass, a cancer survivor who regularly had to take a bus to Kelowna for treatment, says she wishes she could turn back time to October 2020, when she was asked to speak at John Horgan's stop in Kamloops during the last provincial election campaign, where he promised the standalone centre would be built soon.
"I went, and I listened, and I spoke on my story, and he [Horgan] announced that we would get the oncological radiation clinic in the first four years of his term. And we don't have it. And I'm angry. I felt used," said Bass.
TRHD board directors say they want Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix to speed up the construction approval process.
No timeline for cancer centre construction: province
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Dix said the business case for the centre will be finalized in fall 2023, but no timeline has been shared for when construction may start.
"The Cancer Care Centre is currently in the business planning phase, which includes specifying details like size, services and scope of the project," the statement said.
Opposition B.C. Liberal MLAs Todd Stone and Peter Milobar also expressed frustration over what they describe as mixed messaging from Victoria, particularly following February's announcement of $440 million in funding for expanding cancer care teams and service hours and investing in new research and technology.
"Here we are still unaware of location, any type of planning that is happening, and we just think it's time for there to be some transparency to this whole process," Milobar said.
"We have the 10-year cancer plan launched by the government almost two months ago now. Kamloops didn't even have the word printed really in the plan at all. It needs to be public, and so, again, it's a shroud of secrecy."