While significant progress has been providing cancer care services, B.C.’s health minister points out there is still more to do.
Adrian Dix held a news conference at the BC Cancer Clinic - Kelowna on June 27, providing a one-year update on the NDP’s 10-Year Cancer Care Action Plan. “I’m here to report all of the news including the good and the areas where we have to do better,” the minister said. “This year alone 34,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer in B.
C. They are members of my family, and members of many, many other families in B.C.
” A growing and aging population has spurred increasing demand for cancer care services. Cancer among young people is also increasing, along with a greater number of people with cancer living longer who require ongoing care, Dix added. “The demand for cancer care is of course at an all-time high and is expected to increase as our population grows.
” The minister pointed out that B.C. has some of the lowest cancer rates and the best cancer outcomes in the country.
“But I don’t think people in British Columbia care that we’re doing better than Ontario or Quebec or New Brunswick, or wherever. They want us to do much better.” The province is building four new cancer centres, one in Kamloops, another in Nanaimo, a second centre in Surrey and a new facility in Burnaby.
Dix added that 92 cancer-care physicians have been hired recently, including 71 oncologists, as well as 32 additional radiation therapists. Eight Indigen.
