Photo: Michael Potestio

The TRHD wants the province to reconsider its plans to keep cancer services separated when it begins building a long-awaited cancer centre on this parking lot at Royal Inland Hospital.

The chair of the Thompson Regional Hospital District says he plans to share concerns doctors have over the Kamloops cancer centre project with B.C.'s new minister of health to convince her the government should make the facility a one-stop shop.

During a meeting Thursday, Mike O’Reilly said healthcare profesionals at Royal Inland Hospital have expressed to him concerns around the fact the new radiation department planned for the cancer centre will be governed by a separate authority than the current chemotherapy services already operating out of RIH.

“There has been concern raised from local professionals as to how the radiation will be working in conjunction as to what we have already for cancer care,” O’Reilly, who is also city councillor, told Castanet Kamloops.

O’Reilly said the “big” concern is that the radiation department will operate under BC Cancer, but chemotherapy is under the purview of Interior Health.

“You have two health authorities talking,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly said he wants to establish a level of “comfort” with Health Minister Josie Osborne over how the two entities will work together once the new centre is finished at the end of the decade.

“From what we have seen, there's nowhere in North America that has two health authorities working within the same system, across the street from each other,” O’Reilly said.

The current design of the cancer centre project calls for a five-storey facility in a lot adjacent to Royal Inland Hospital, immediately south of St. Ann's Academy, housing a new radiation department and three floors of parking.

The chemotherapy department, meanwhile, will be relocated to be closer to the pharmacy, but will remain in the hospital building.

“We will now be the only tertiary hospital in British Columbia without a fully fledged cancer centre, and that's an important thing for our residents as our area is growing,” O’Reilly said.

The TRHD is in favour of having both departments under one roof in the new building — an idea former Health Minister Adrian Dix nixed heading into October's provincial election due to costs and timeline.

With the NDP government winning re-election, Dix was shuffled out of the health ministry and made Minister of Energy and Mines. It’s not clear if his replacement feels any different about the design change.

O’Reilly told Castanet Kamloops he hopes to address this issue with new minister Osborne.

He said while he’s grateful radiation services will be coming to Kamloops, so residents don’t have to travel out of town for it, having cancer services in separate buildings does not make for a “full fledged” facility.

“We're wanting something that is here for the long-term, not a Band-Aid solution, he said.

O’Reilly told the hospital board he was sending a letter to Osborne Thursday asking to discuss the concerns. He also said he is looking forward to working with a new minister who has a “fresh set of eyes” on the issues.

Costs estimates have not moved

Meanwhile the cancer care project, as-is, remains projected to cost $359 million after a costing update this past July resulted in no estimated changes to the budget, Todd Mastel, IH executive director of business operations, told the hospital board Thursday.

Mastel said the request for proposal process with the two contractors invited to bid on the project is still on track to be completed next May, with groundbreaking in the summer of 2025. The new centre is projected to be complete in 2028 with changes in RIH done by 2029.

Mastel said IH will keep the board abreast of the costs as the procurement process comes to a close.