B.C. government adding $440-million in funding to province’s cancer agency
The British Columbia government is adding $440-million in funding to the province’s cancer agency over the next three years to address an increasing need for services and a shortage of staff, which have led to a slide in the quality of care.
“It is unacceptable to be in a situation in our province where someone is waiting for screening or waiting for treatment to the point that it’s compromising their cancer care,” Premier Eby said when asked about internal wait-time averages recently obtained by The Globe and Mail. The Globe investigation found that some cancer patients in B.C. are now waiting months to begin treatment. As of last fall, only one in five patients referred to an oncologist received a first consultation within the recommended period of two weeks, The Globe found. In comparison, about 75 per cent of patients in Ontario are seen within two weeks.
Kim Nguyen Chi, a medical oncologist who was named chief medical officer at BC Cancer and vice-president of the Provincial Health Services Authority in 2019, said three core benchmarks must be hit: that 90 per cent of patients seeing an oncologist do so within four weeks of a referral, the same percentage get chemotherapy within two weeks of being ready and the same percentage also receive radiation within a month of being prepared.
Since the beginning of 2020, 18 medical and radiation oncologists had left BC Cancer. Some told The Globe they did so because they felt they could no longer provide an appropriate level of care. Other doctors said patients with terminal diagnoses are turning to medical assistance in dying, or MAID, when their pain and anxiety grow unbearable.
Lisa Danyluk, whose mother, Geneva Reynen, had her surgery cancelled in December while facing Stage 3 ovarian cancer, welcomed the investments.
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