Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Nicole Read speaks during Tuesday's council meeting.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Women's health

Councillor alarmed over lack of female cancer services in Chilliwack, says ‘we have to save our women’

Sep 17, 2025 | 8:34 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack Councillor Nicole Read urged the B.C. Ministry of Health to take action over a lack of female health specialists and associated services in the eastern Fraser Valley, saying it’s having an adverse impact on women’s health in Chilliwack.

Councillor Read made the comments at the tail end of Tuesday’s council meeting, highlighting a prior commitment by B.C. Premier David Eby around three positions for gynecological oncologists in Fraser Health.

“I just wanted to bring up that there’s an urgent need for female health specialists in the Fraser Health region,” Read said. “We’ve seen some documentation recently on Global TV where they profiled a doctor (Dr. Gurdial Dhillon) that was a gynecological oncologist.”

Image: B.C. Cancer / Dr. Gurdial Dhillon, a physician with a clinical practice in Chilliwack.

Global BC reported in its news segment profiling Dr. Dhillon that the B.C. NDP government promised six positions for gynecological oncology, including three in Kelowna and three in Fraser Health, so that women could access timely, safe cancer care. Premier David Eby stood before TV cameras in July 2024 and made that promise. To date, the three positions in Kelowna have been filled, but not the three promised positions in Fraser Health.

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As a result, Councillor Read said there are profound implications for women’s health in Chilliwack and the surrounding communities.

“There [are] massive consequences to what’s happening in our region for female health issues,” Read said. “Women in our community are waiting longer for diagnoses, surgeries, and treatments for conditions like ovarian cancers or ovarian issues, uterine and cervical cancers. They’re all delayed. [Delayed] access can mean worse outcomes and higher mortality for the women in our community. Patients are forced to travel to Vancouver for these specialists.”

Read pointed out that Vancouver Coastal Health has 11 gynecological oncologists for a region that is 1.7 million, while Fraser Health has no gynecological oncologists for a catchment that serves 2.2 million residents.

“So there’s a huge disparity and a lack of fair services. I just wanna urge that we reach out to Fraser Health leadership and maybe to the [Health] Minister (Josie Osborne) to ask for some immediate action around female health specialist services for the Fraser Health region and specifically for our community. There’s been issues in many of the Fraser Health hospitals dealing with maternity care, and it has to stop. We have to save our women. I’d just like to urge us as a city to put it out there to the Minister and for others in the community to continue to promote it.”

Upon hearing these comments, Mayor Ken Popove urged Chief Administrative Officer David Blain to have city communications staff draft a letter and send it to the Minister of Health.