YOUR PERSPECTIVE: B.C. cancer care crumbling under NDP
-
Share on Facebook
-
Share on Bluesky
-
Share on X
- Copy Link
A cancer diagnosis is one of the worst, most stressful moments in a person’s life. While they’re thinking of their future, their family, and everything else that comes with a cancer diagnosis, the last thing they should have to worry about is how long they will be left waiting for life-saving treatment. But today in British Columbia, too many people are not getting the care they need, when they need it.
Our health care system is at the breaking point. We’ve already seen that B.C.’s cancer care system is so overwhelmed the NDP government has started sending patients to the U.S. for treatment. It’s extremely upsetting that we don’t have the capacity to care for all British Columbians here in B.C. and have now been forced to send patients internationally as a stop-gap measure.
While it’s disappointing that we have to resort to sending patients elsewhere for treatment, I had hoped that the program would be successful so that more people would get timely cancer care. Unfortunately, it’s recently been revealed that while the NDP said they would be sending 50 patients a week to Bellingham, they’ve only managed to send an average of 12 per week. This means that not only has this government failed to manage B.C.’s health care system, they can’t even successfully manage their backup plan.
Amid these failures, we keep hearing horrific stories of British Columbians trying to navigate the health care system in our province. There’s Allison Ducluzeau, who after being diagnosed with late-stage cancer, was told she wouldn’t be able to receive treatment in B.C. in time. She was even advised by doctors to start considering medically assisted death. However, Allison was able to find a doctor in the U.S. who could perform a life-saving surgery, and have the procedure done, before she even got a call back from BC Cancer.
