Opposition says leaked document shows radiation waits may be longer than reported

A document leaked to the opposition party, B.C. United, shows radiation wait times may be even worse than previously reported by the health minister.

On Monday Adrian Dix announced some B.C. cancer patients would be given the option to travel to Washington state for treatment due to long waits here and increasing demand.

A series of graphs from a dashboard -- that appears to be from B.C. Cancer -- suggests fewer than 80 per cent of people are getting their radiation therapy in 28 days, the ideal amount of time.

On Monday, health minister Adrian Dix said the latest number he had was 82.9 per cent. It's unclear if he was referring to the leaked data.

At an unrelated event, Dix was asked whether the province waited too long to act.

"People will always say when you're taking action that it could've been taken a day sooner or a time sooner, but this is pretty decisive action, in addition to a massive cancer plan which focuses on research, health human resources and getting more care to patients," Dix said.

For health critic Shirley Bond, the key message from the leaked document is that the scenario is potentially worse than what's been described.

"Information is coming from cancer care providers, people who are very likely afraid to speak out, specifically, but the situation in terms of how many people are actually being seen within the benchmark wait times appears to be significantly lower than has been talked about publicly," Bond told CTV News.

The opposition is calling on the minister to release more data so British Columbians can know exactly what's going on. They're also flagging other long waits in the cancer care journey that they say also need to be addressed.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information has data which shows B.C. has the worst outcomes when it comes to waits for radiation therapy.