Kamloops to get new cancer care centre

The B.C. government is preparing to build a long-promised cancer care centre in Kamloops.

Provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix announced Thursday that the new facility at the Royal Inland Hospital will include radiation therapy, meaning patients will no longer have to travel roughly two hours to Kelowna for treatment.

He says a “concept plan” for the centre, which was promised as part of the 2020 election, has been approved, and a business plan will be completed before the end of 2023.

“Today’s announcement of the concept plan approval for the new cancer care centre demonstrates our government’s commitment to deliver world-class cancer care closer to home for residents in Kamloops,” said Dix in a statement.

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Dix says he expects the building to be ready to see patients in 2027, and when ready, it will offer “modern, high-quality comprehensive cancer-care services.”

The new facility is expected to treat 1,000 different patients per year, which the B.C. government says amounts to 14,000 total treatment visits yearly. In addition, it is supposed to include a new 470-stall parkade.

Currently, some of the only cancer-care treatment in Kamloops is conducted in an oncology clinic at Royal Inland Hospital. The B.C. government says the team behind it provides “exceptional care,” but the facility can’t meet the area’s treatment demands.

The announcement comes more than a week after Dix announced up to 50 B.C. cancer patients will be referred to two clinics in Washington every week in an effort to reduce wait times for radiation therapy.

With files from John Ackermann