Almost a decade ago, scientists at the BC Cancer Agency sent a letter to their bosses chronicling a litany of concerns they had about their once-prestigious organization.
Eight agency scientists described a plethora of problems, starting with a lack of funding, which had curtailed the agency’s ability to hire world-class researchers. A long-standing salary freeze and the lack of a competitive remuneration policy had also helped exacerbate a staffing crisis.
The scientists talked about the “administrative paralysis” that had taken hold of the organization.
Then there were the oncologists. They wrote their own letter to the provincial health authority that oversaw the agency. It outlined a series of concerns from declining morale to rising staff burnout to increased wait times to compromised patient care. There were also earlier warnings that there would soon be a shortfall in medical imaging technologists for diagnostic and surgical procedures, creating more backlogs.
Those inside the agency painted a dire and, frankly, chilling picture of cancer care in the province, where people died, or had their conditions worsen, while waiting to get treatment.
Despite the best intentions of a series of new leaders at the province’s cancer agency over the past several years, here we are today with the same problems as bad as ever.
The Globe and Mail spent several weeks earlier this year chronicling the latest issues besetting the cancer care field in B.C., with missed wait-time benchmarks being chief among them. More recently, The Vancouver Sun has published a series of deeply disturbing stories detailing the trials of several people diagnosed with cancer.
The paper profiled a Victoria woman with stomach cancer who needed chemotherapy urgently but was told she had to go on a wait list. When the treatment finally commenced the cancer had spread so far that she opted for a medically assisted death.
There was another woman from Saanich, Allison Ducluzeau, who had a rare form of abdominal cancer. With few options for her in B.C., she opted for treatment at a hospital in Baltimore, Md., – treatment she’d been denied here – and was forced to pay the $205,000 cost out of her own pocket. The realtor, told by doctors in B.C. she had little time left, has since returned to work and gotten married on a Hawaiian beach.
Then there is the story of Sheila Vicic of South Surrey, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer. When told about the wait times for chemotherapy in B.C., she decided to go to a clinic in Bellingham, Wash., and get the treatments there at her own expense. After the regime was completed, she contacted BC Cancer staff to discuss follow-up measures. She was told she was no longer in the system because she had opted to get treatment on her own in the U.S. – even though, months ago, the B.C. government started sending provincial patients to the U.S. for cancer treatment because of backlogs in the province.
What a nightmare.
You hear a lot about the housing crisis in B.C., but not enough about the health care crisis. This will be the biggest story of the next decade – just the sheer volume of Canadians who are going to be diagnosed with some dreaded disease like cancer and then be told they are going to have to get in a long lineup for treatment.
I believe the provincial government does understand the depth of the problem it has on its hands. It unveiled a 10-year plan for cancer care in February with a huge $440-million investment behind it. Four new cancer centres are on the books to be built over the next several years. A massive hiring spree, especially for radiation therapists and technologists, has been initiated.
This will all help … eventually. It is not going to help those getting sick today, or tomorrow, or in the next few years. It may not even make a massive difference down the road, with the increasing numbers of people pouring into the province each year.
There are calls for the resignation of B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix. He can’t be blamed for all this. This crisis has been years, even decades, in the making. That said, I do wonder if a fresh set of eyes on the problem wouldn’t be helpful.
Ultimately, it is Premier David Eby’s responsibility. There is no bigger issue in his province right now than health care, and specifically, cancer care. There is a crisis under way and something needs to be done about it.