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Radiation therapy excluded in $59M Cranbrook hospital expansion

Cost, demand, and staffing are behind the exclusion of radiation therapy at KERH expansion: Minister
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B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne speaks in Vancouver Jan. 20, 2025 for an announcement on treatment beds in the province. (Lauren Collins/Black Press Media)

The East Kootenay Regional Hospital in Cranbrook is getting a new building with expanded space for renal and oncology departments, following approval of a provincial business plan this month.

However, that plan will not include radiation therapy infrastructure — a key element of specialized cancer care that local officials had been lobbying the Ministry of Health for while the business plan was being drafted.

BC Health Minister Josie Osborne touted the new $59 million two-storey building and expansion of renal and oncology infrastructure while also acknowledging the challenges faced by East Kootenay cancer patients who endure travel burdens to access radiation therapy treatment in Kelowna and elsewhere in B.C.

"It's an expansion that means we provide better patient-centred care to people who live in the East Kootenay," said Osborne, in a recent interview with the Cranbrook Townsman.

"This expansion project will address certain needs to upgrade and enhance the capabilities of the oncology and renal departments and this is a good thing for people. When the ministry is considering the services that can be housed in different communities, we have to consider, for example, radiation oncology being a very specialized service.

"So it requires a facility to have a linear accelerator, a custom-built vault and there are other requirements for surrounding facilities and it also requires the specialized health professionals that have to be there. So when considering the expansion, the Ministry of Health, Interior Health and B.C. Cancer really look at all of these pieces — the demand locally, the health and human resources available, the overall sustainability of the service, all the infrastructure requirements, the cost, and really making sometimes difficult decisions around the use of resources."

Osborne noted that a linear accelerator — the key piece of specialized infrastructure in radiation treatment — can provide 7,000 treatments annually, however, the demand from East Kootenay-based patients translates to roughly 3,000 treatments per year.

"It is challenging to have a stand-alone service that has low volumes and makes it harder to staff, but all of this to say, that when the volumes support it, there is a possibility of adding radiation therapy to a future project so it doesn't close the door, but means that the decision may be made later when the volumes warrant it," Osborne said.

Based on data provided by B.C. Cancer last summer, demand by East Kootenay-based patients for radiation therapy rose 64 per cent between 2019-2024.

In 2023/24, East Kootenay cancer patients recorded 3,545 radiation therapy treatments, while patients based in the neighbouring Kootenay-Boundary region logged 3,395 treatments. The vast majority of those East Kootenay and Kootenay-Boundary patients accessed their radiation therapy treatments at the BC Cancer centre in Kelowna — the nearest facility to cancer patients in the Kootenay region.

David Wilks, the Mayor of Sparwood and the chair of the Kootenay East Regional Hospital District board, was a driving force in the campaign to include radiation therapy into the EKRH expansion.

"I hope that we can find ways to smooth the waters getting to Kelowna and back and we'll go from there, but excited that we are getting an expanded renal and oncology unit in Cranbrook," he said, in an interview.

"It was a long hill upward to begin with and I would say myself and the board, we tried our best and it's [radiation therapy] just not in the cards right now, but we do need to try and improve how we get people to and from Kelowna," Wilks said. 

Efforts to get a linear accelerator into Cranbrook date back to the 2017 provincial election, as former MLA Tom Shypitka attempted to work with Interior Health and BC Cancer to get a linear accelerator to EKRH, however, those conversations didn't formally move forward following pushback from the BC government.

"I am very happy to see the announcement and I am thrilled for all the folks this build-out will help in the future," Shypitka said, in a social media post. "However, what this announcement didn’t include was an option for radiation treatment. This was the primary priority myself and several others had. Without a concrete bunker allocated to hold the 'linear accelerator' (Linac) we will not see radiation treatment in the East Kootenay for another generation, in my opinion."

Pete Davis, who defeated Shypitka and won the Kootenay-Rockies riding for the BC Conservatives in the provincial election last fall, also questioned why the radiation therapy component was left out of the business plan.

"I can't help but wonder – why didn’t we receive radiation services as part of this expansion? It’s something I hope we can see in the future to ensure comprehensive care for our region," Davis said.

The Alberta angle

Kelowna is the nearest BC Cancer centre to the East Kootenay, however, major urban centres in Alberta such as Letbridge and Calgary that also have radiation therapy services are much closer.

B.C. patients having to access out-of-province health care isn't a new phenomenon; the provincial government signed an agreement with a private health care provider in Bellingham, WA, to provide radiation therapy services for B.C. patients, at their discretion. 

While Osborne noted the geographic convenience of Alberta to the East Kootenay region, she said at this time that "there's just no option" for out-of-province patients to access radiation therapy services in Alberta.

"We are going to continue to work with the Alberta Ministry of Health and make sure people who live in that part of the province, in the southeast, are able to access critical care when they need it," Osborne said "And in any opportunity that we have to support the collaboration between our two health care systems, we are absolutely going to seize that and make sure that we can do the work that we need to do in order to align some of the policy and legislation that's needed."

Wilks acknowledged the capacity challenges in Alberta, while also expressing a desire to move the conversation forward.

"As far as I know, the door has been closed," Wilks said. "I would certainly like to at least make the effort if we can enter into an MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] with the Lethbridge hospital because they do have radiation services, it is close. 

"We're not asking for the world here, we're just asking in proximity to where a lot of people live that it does make sense."

Angel Flight East Kootenay, an East-Kootenay based volunteer transport service, currently flies medical patients directly to Kelowna for specialist appointments free of charge. Hope Air also recently expanded to Cranbrook, however, there are no direct flights from Cranbrook to Kelowna. 

 

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Trevor Crawley

About the Author: Trevor Crawley

Trevor Crawley has been a reporter with the Cranbrook Townsman and Black Press in various roles since 2011.
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