CAMPAIGN FOR CANCER CARE
The Thompson Regional Hospital District board hopes a soon-to-be launched public advocacy campaign will put pressure on the provincial government to finally deliver a long-awaited Kamloops Cancer Centre.
On Thursday, the TRHD board of directors voted to allocate up to $75,000 to hire an external contractor which would create and oversee a regional campaign advocating for the facility.
Corbin Kelley, external relations and advocacy advisor, told the board an outsourced campaign would include public relations, factsheets, display materials and newsletters, branding, website and social media management, and sending delegations to local governments with updates.
“It’s important to note that we — yourselves, as the TRHD board and ourselves as staff of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District — should not be the ones driving this campaign,” Kelley said.
“The recommendation as it stands is to have the campaign driven by members of the public.”
The campaign is expected to begin near the end of 2023. Kelley said the 10-month timeframe was put forward by board chair and Kamloops Coun. Mike O’Reilly as it’s the lead-up time to the next provincial general election.
Adrian Dix, the province’s health minister, travelled to Kamloops in May to announce that a concept plan for a cancer care centre had been approved. The facility, planned to include a full suite of services and additional parking, would be located on a site adjacent to Royal Inland Hospital.
Diagnostics and chemotherapy are available for cancer patients at RIH, but area residents must travel to Kelowna to receive radiation treatments.
“It is understood by staff that approximately 40 per cent of patients receiving radiation treatment at KGH [Kelowna General Hospital] are residents of the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap Health Service Delivery Area,” said a report prepared for Thursday’s board meeting.
The staff report noted a full cancer centre at RIH has been promised, “however, shovels have not been put in the ground.”
Staff said political-level attempts to advocate for a cancer centre have been unsuccessful, but public advocacy campaigns have worked to bring other types of services to Kamloops in the past.
O’Reilly said the TRHD board has been advocating for more cancer services for “the better part of 28 years.”
“We haven’t moved the needle,” O’Reilly said.
He said the lead-up to the provincial election is just one component, noting advocacy shouldn’t stop after the election is over.
“Once the framework is done up for this for a website, and people can be uploading and being a part of this, it’s not going to have the ongoing operational costs as the initial startup,” he said.
“This is something that I would think would continue until there’s a shovel in the ground.”
Kelley agreed.
“This is just the initial groundwork that needs to be laid for a public advocacy campaign for a cancer centre here in Kamloops,” he said.
