Cancer patients in British Columbia will no longer be referred to clinics in Bellingham, Washington, for care, the Minister of Health Josie Osborne announced.
Osborne says that the Ministry’s decision was not the result of the current commercial war of Canada de US, but due to the decrease in participation in the program and the shortest waiting times for the attention in BC.
“It has always tried to provide more attention to cancer for people closer to home,” he said.
“The investments we have made in more oncologists, more radiotherapy, therapists, improvement of hospital facilities, that is what has allowed us to reduce those waiting times.”
The BC government is now sharing how much it costs taxpayers to send cancer patients to the US. UU. To receive treatment. British columbia has among the highest waiting times for radiotherapy in Canada. As Katie Derosa reports, he has caused another debate on the role of private medical care in the province.
The program, which has allowed 1,107 cancer patients to complete radiation treatment, be introduced to help fight in long delays for treatment within BC, an average of approximately 50 British Colombians per week received attention in Bellingham in the peak of the program in the autumn of 2023.
Osborne says it will conclude when the contracts expire with the two private clinics of the United States at the end of May, two years after it was announced for the first time.
She says it was planned as a temporary measure to reduce waiting times, while the province strengthened its own ability to provide radiotherapy.
The province has paid more than $ 32 million for the programs at the end of March 2025.
Osborne says that the interest in seeking attention through these clinics has decreased, coinciding with an improvement in waiting times for treatment within BC
According to the province, about 93 percent of British Colombians now expect less than four weeks to begin radiation treatment, according to the province, above the national point of reference of 90 percent.
This is a 24 percent increase since BC first announced plans to send patients to the US. UU. To receive care in the spring of 2023.
Paul Adams, Executive Director of the BC Rural Health Network, says it is cautious about what the cancellation of this program could mean for the waiting list of people waiting for treatment, particularly when the work to add regional centers for cancer care throughout the province is not complete.
“Our concern will be how people will be treated in a timely manner,” he said.
John Rustad, the leader of the BC conservatives, echoes the concern.
“If people need the service, they need to get it wherever they can get it,” he said.
“I only worry that some patients do not receive [care]that some patients are sliding through cracks. “
Around 600 people with breast cancer or prostate cancer have received radiotherapy in Bellingham, Washington, since the program was announced last May. The figures were published on Thursday as part of the one -year update of the province in its 10 -year cancer plan. As Katie Derosa reports, while the province has reduced the size of the waiting list for radiotherapy, critics say that trusting the United States is an accusation of the cancer system.
Nine patients are still in the process of undergoing treatment in the two private clinics of Bellingham; However, the province says they are expected to end before the clinic contracts expire in May.
The Ministry of Health estimated that around 104 patients would continue to access the program during the next year, if it continued, but says that the medical care system has the ability to treat these patients within BC.
It is estimated that half of the British Colombians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lives, according to BC Cancer.
When CBC News asked him, Osborne did not specifically said how cancer care and staff facilities have changed to meet patient demand, but said there have been recruitment efforts aimed at increasing the number of oncologists and radiation therapists.
Since April 2023, BC Cancer says he has hired 56.6 full -time equivalent doctors. He has also hired about 20 medical oncologists and eight radiation oncologists.
The province currently has six cancer service centers and is working to add more in Nanaimo, Kamloops, Surrey and Burnaby.
Leanne Kopp, executive director of the Island Prostate Center, said she was surprised to hear about the cancellation of the program. His patients who received treatment through Bellingham clinics returned, informing their satisfaction with the support and care available there, he said.
However, having access to care closer to home, and without having to cross the US. For a time of high tensions, it can only be something good if BC can meet the demand, he said.
“If the program is no longer being executed, and that is based on the ability that patients can be treated here in the same amount of time, I see that as a mutual benefit,” Kopp said.
