Province announces cancer care centre for Nanaimo, B.C.

B.C.'s premier and health minister were in Nanaimo on Friday to announce a new cancer care centre.

The central Vancouver Island city, which has a population of more than 90,000, is the latest municipality in the province to get a centre providing radiation therapy, an outpatient ambulatory care unit and a net new PET/CT machine. 

Health Minister Adrian Dix was in Kamloops to announce a similar centre on Thursday. It's all part of B.C.'s 10-year, $440 million cancer plan that was unveiled in February to deliver on a promise in the B.C. NDP's 2020 election platform.

In Nanaimo on Friday, Dix said new resources are needed to achieve "sustainable cancer care, provincewide" as the population grows.

"This new cancer centre will provide services people can rely on, with the latest technology, so a cancer-free future can be the reality for more people in B.C.," he said, surrounded by local politicians and cancer care doctors and administrators.

It's estimated that half of B.C. residents will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.

The new centre will be located at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, with a business plan to be approved this fall. Like the new facility announced for Kamloops, it's not expected to begin seeing patients until 2027.

Currently, cancer patients in Nanaimo often travel to Victoria for care. Earlier this month, the province approved temporarily sending cancer patients to clinics in neighbouring Washington state to reduce wait lists at treatment centres in B.C.

'We don't want anyone to wait'

Premier David Eby defended the work his government was doing to address shortfalls in health care across the province.

"Short, medium and long term, we're taking action," he said Friday.

"We don't anyone to wait and we're certainly not asking people to wait until 2027 for cancer care. Yet what we're doing here is building the infrastructure for the future, right here in Nanaimo, for a growing city."