CANCER CENTRE – Construction to start next year on $359-million facility
Health Minister Adrian Dix. (Image: BC Govt)
The business plan for a new $359-million cancer centre at Royal Inland Hospital was unveiled today (Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024) by Health Minister Adrian Dix during a visit to Kamloops.
Dix had confirmed last month that the plan was completed.
The five-storey facility will be built on the Westlands site on the RIH campus. There will be space for radiation treatment, radiation-therapy planning, including a CT Simulator, an outpatient ambulatory-care unit, including 10 exam rooms, and two consultation rooms for radiation-therapy services, an additional MRI suite, and patient arrival and check-in areas.
The centre will have three linear accelerator vaults. These heavy, concrete structures contain radiation equipment used for cancer-patient treatment. In collaboration with Indigenous partners, there will also be a sacred space for patients, caregivers and staff, with features to support traditional ceremonies.
A new 470-stall parkade will also be constructed as a part of the centre.
In addition, upgrades to RIH to expand cancer care have also been approved, which includes updating and expanding the pharmacy, and relocation and expansion of the Community Oncology Network clinic from the eighth floor to the main floor with more space and improved access.
Cancer care delivered through the clinic includes oral and intravenous cancer treatment, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy and hormonal therapy. The clinic also provides initial consultation and treatment planning with a medical oncologist, supportive care, followup care and patient education.
The procurement process is underway, Dix said, with construction expected to begin in 2025 and complete in 2028.
The cost of the project will be shared between the provincial government, Interior Health and Thompson Regional Hospital District.
“Approval of the business plan is a critical milestone for this crucial project,” said Dix.
“This state-of-the-art cancer centre will benefit patients in Kamloops and the surrounding area by offering the confidence from knowing that we’re building treatment capacity for now and the future.”
Dr. Kim Chi, the executive vice president and chief medical officer of BC Cancer, said the new centre “will increase our capacity to deliver radiation treatment closer to home for the people of Kamloops and surrounding communities for generations to come.”
Thompson Regional Hospital District chair Mike O’Reilly welcomed the announced as a “positive progress update.” He didn’t say how it would affect the district’s $75,000 lobbying campaign to push for a cancer centre that was launched only a few days ago.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
wow, could we not just be grateful that it is going to happen?
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We are grateful, but being grateful doesn’t preclude valid criticism, for example, the string of broken promises over the years that to this day require cancer patients to drive to Kelowna for treatment. Which inevitably leads to higher costs for the payers, which Pierre rightly points out are not from those entities, as they generate no revenue of their own, but the people who pay taxes. The wasteful spending of council may or may not be impacted by this announcement. The fight against high taxes is also one worth fighting.
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Knowing council, they will spend the $75K to lobby for a treatment facility that has just been officially announced.
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”The cost of the project will be shared between the provincial government, Interior Health and Thompson Regional Hospital District.” Really now…where does Inferior Health and the Thompson Region Health District get their money from. Asking for a friend, btw.
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