Plan to send B.C. cancer patients to U.S. for treatment gets mixed reaction
A day after B.C.'s health minister announced that some patients with B prostate or breast cancer will head to the U.S. for treatment, the opposition and a patient are saying this is a Band-Aid solution for a more complex problem.
On Monday Adrian Dix said staffing shortages, a need to upgrade equipment and more diagnoses of cancer necessitated a short-term solution. Starting May 29 and for two years, up to 50 B.C. residents per week could be sent south of the border for no-cost treatment.
Leah Rowntree was recently diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. While on a holiday to the United States, a friend urged her to get scans. Rowntree said those diagnostics revealed how urgent her case is.
"If I survive this one of the reasons will be that I had the scans I needed in an appropriate amount of time," she told CTV News.
She believes timing is critical and although she still has chemotherapy and surgery, she said if the opportunity was there, she'd go back to the U.S. for treatment.
"Absolutely I would do whatever is the fastest because that would give me the best outcome. And at the same time, I'd be crying as I packed my bags to leave my family and friends and my home to go down for treatment," Rowntree, who was choked up at the thought, added.
Data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information shows radiation treatment waits are getting longer. In 2020, 90 per cent of patients got treated within 28 days, the health minister says that's now under 83 per cent. What that means is hundreds of people with a cancer diagnosis are waiting longer than a month.
BC United health critic Shirley Bond said she has raised the issue with the government several times.
"We see long waits to get your diagnosis, long waits to see your oncologist and now you may have to leave the country to get treatment. I think it's a significant indictment of the deterioration of cancer care," Bond said.
At an unrelated event, Premier David Eby disagreed. He said the health minister saw the demand for cancer care growing and so came up with a solution.
"From my perspective, from the perspective of our government – anything we can do to ensure they get urgent care, and the care that is medically recommended for them in the timeframes that are required is essential," Eby added.
Rowntree had a different reaction.
"I just think my God, it shows just how broken our healthcare system is."
In a statement, the health ministry said up to $39 million is available per year to fund the treatment, and that amount includes contingencies for unplanned costs.
This is what the ministry says will be covered for patients:
- Travel by plane, car or ferry
- Meals (per diem in alignment with PHSA’s Travel and Business Expense Policy)
- Accommodation
- Ambulance fees related to their radiation therapy care
- Laboratory and medical imaging tests during the treatment duration, exclusing genetic testing
- Prescription drugs, including supportive care medications required during the treatment duration
- Patient immobilization devices required for radiation therapy treatment
- Services provided by non-physician professionals (e.g. Registered Dietitian, Psychiatry, etc.)
A companion will be also be able to claim travel, meals and accommodation.
Anyone traveling will be responsible for securing documentation like passports and visas.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.