
Space constraints, added costs and the need to keep Royal Inland Hospital's pharmacy and chemotherapy services together — that's why the pending $359-million Kamloops cancer centre isn’t going to be a one-stop shop, according to Interior Health.
Meanwhile, the chair of the Thompson Regional Hospital District says all they can do is advocate for what they feel is the best design plan.
IH officials gave the TRHD an update Thursday on the project at RIH, as well as an explanation on why radiation and chemotherapy services are slated to be housed in different buildings.
The radiation department will be part of the new five-storey building planned for a parcel of land immediately south of St. Ann's Academy, while upgrades are made to the existing chemotherapy department and pharmacy in the main hospital.
Gerry Desilets, Executive Director of Clinical Operations at RIH, told the board the reasons for excluding chemotherapy from the new build is that its footprint is already maximized to the land available and already requires a height variance.
He said the chemotherapy department needs to be near the pharmacy, and moving chemotherapy services to the new building would require adding a pharmacy to the proposed cancer centre.
Desilets told Castanet Kamloops it would be costly to operate and build two pharmacies.
“If we have one already that's working, then we want to make sure we utilize that … and making sure that we have enough staff to do that,” he said.
Desilets said there's a lot of work that goes into creating a pharmacy that is in compliance with all the standards to mix chemotherapy drugs and to have all that equipment in RIH and in another site would create a “substantial cost.”
But the cost differential of just moving the existing pharmacy and chemotherapy department into the new building instead of the current renovation plan is not clear.
Better together
In June, Tricia Thorpe, Electoral Area I (Blue Sky Country) director asked IH to bring forward that cost differential at their Sept. 5 meeting. Desilets, however, did not have those numbers with him at Thursday's meeting.
Thorpe told Castanet Kamloops she feels the pharmacy and chemotherapy department should be in the new cancer centre with radiation to avoid a piecemeal delivery of services.
“We're constantly renovating at that hospital,” Thorpe said.
“Renovation costs always seem to go over, whereas, I think, when we're doing a brand new build, it's a set price, they have a contract. Putting everything in that one building and getting it right the first time, I think would be far more effective and better for our patients.”
After not receiving the numbers she requested, Thorpe said she feels the province isn’t willing to change the project from its current plan.
She said she’s not sure there would be an added cost to add all services to the new build versus renovating RIH given that they weren’t provided numbers on Thursday.
In June, Thorpe and Kamloops Coun. Dale Bass told IH that having chemotherapy and radiation in the same building would be more convenient for cancer patients who need both treatments, rather than the current model where they would have to travel some 500 metres between two buildings, crossing Third Avenue in the process.
Under the current plan, chemotherapy services are being relocated, but they will move from the eighth floor of RIH’s south tower to the first floor of the northwest wing to be closer to the pharmacy.
The pharmacy will expand its existing space in the North Tower into an area currently housing hospital administration.
At province’s mercy
Hospital board chair and Kamloops city councillor Mike O’Reilly told Desilets the building variance the project needs lies with the municipality and council would be supportive of changes to the project.
“We would gladly get to the table if it would help make a better cancer centre,” O’Reilly said.
Desilets told Castanet Kamloops the variance is just one issue, but it’s one that could potentially be revisited.
O’Reilly said he felt the variance was not a valid reason from IH for not expanding the centre, because city council has been very proactive working with the health authority on other projects.
He said it would be ideal if the centre was built as a one-stop shop, but the TRHD only has so much sway as a minority funding partner.
"We're sort of at the mercy of them [the province], and that's why we have to have continued advocacy to the provincial government of what we need for our residents,” Oreilly said.
The five-storey 50,000 square-foot standalone cancer centre and a 470-stall parkade will be erected on the Westlands parking lot at RIH immediately south of St. Ann's Academy.
No cost increases yet
Desilets said a costing update for the cancer care project completed in July did not result in any increased cost to the project. He said the next project update will be completed in the spring of 2025, coinciding with the project tendering process.
Interior Health and BC Cancer are expected to choose the project’s design-build team by May 2025, with construction beginning in the summer of 2025.
The new facility is expected to be complete by December 2028 while the renovations to RIH finished by summer 2029.
The new building will include space for radiation treatment, radiation therapy planning, including a CT simulator, an outpatient ambulatory care unit including 10 exam rooms and two consultation rooms for radiation services.
The top three levels of the five-storey building will be taken up by the parking garage.