Photo: Contributed
BC Health Minister Adrian DIx
Michael Potestio – Sep 8, 2024 / 4:00 am |
No changes to cancer centre
The province is not entertaining the idea of making the proposed $359-million Kamloops cancer centre a one-stop shop, according to Health Minister Adrian Dix.
The current design of the 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 in RIH.
Some of Thompson Regional Hospital District directors have said it would be better to have all departments in the same building rather than separate for patients who need both treatments.
In Kamloops on Friday for the announcement of new long-term care beds, Dix told Castanet Kamloops the provincial government is not considering coupling those departments into the new centre.
“What we’re considering is the plan we laid out,” Dix said. “What I want is radiation therapy in Kamloops as soon as possible and this is the right plan to deliver just that, which means some improvements in the existing hospital.”
Dix also said the current plan, which calls for radiation and chemotherapy housed in separate buildings, is the most efficient and cost-effective way to deliver the project for Kamloops as quickly as possible. He also said changing the design could push the project’s completion date as late as 2032.
He said it’s his “strong view” that the building needs to be constructed now.
Completion is pegged for 2028 for the new building and 2029 for the work inside the main RIH building.
Dix also noted that part of the project is to alleviate parking constraints at RIH.
“This is the most efficient plan. We want to do it as efficiently as possible because we have lots of projects, including in Kamloops, that we want to proceed with,” Dix said.
“The people we had designing this, the people who are experts in this area, said this was the best plan to maintain the community oncology network that’s always been there, and to build out radiations services, and to add the other services of the building, including and around it, the parking and everything else.”
Two builders are currently having their requests for proposals reviewed for the project, with the successful bidder to be determined next May.
