The B.C. government has announced details on a $20 million funding boost to expand travel supports for cancer patients living in rural and remote communities.
Health Minister Adrian Dix made the announcement Wednesday at the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) in Vancouver.
“Traveling for treatment can cause additional stress at a very difficult time both for people with cancer and their families. Receiving a cancer diagnosis is a life-changing event and it brings many stresses: personal stresses, physical stresses, emotional stresses and financial stresses,” Dix said.
“The financial burden of cancer is especially felt by those who live further away from a cancer centre and must travel by land, sea or air to receive cancer treatment.”
Under the plan, described as an “initial investment,” the CCS and Hope Air will each get $10 million to “expand access to travel and accommodation services” for cancer patients who must leave their home communities for care.
The CCS funding will go to create a Cancer Travel and Accommodation Services BC program, updating three existing travel support programs and doubling capacity, Dix said.
Patients with a household income under $150,000 will be eligible to have travel expenses reimbursed, the Wheels of Hope volunteer driver program will expand in Vancouver Island and the Kootenays, and the CCA’s four lodges will expand hours, Dix added.
The money will also create a new $4,000 travel grant program for bone marrow transplant recipients who need treatment in Vancouver.
The Hope Air funding will expand services offering free round-trip air travel from home to hospital for patients and travel escorts.
It will also offer up to 14 nights of hotel accommodation where CCS lodging isn’t available and cover Uber or Taxi transport from the airport to the hospital in some communities where volunteer drivers aren’t available.
BC United Official Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon called the announcement too little, too late.
“This is putting a band-aid on a very massive, festering wound,” he said.
“The fact of the matter is our cancer care has deteriorated so much under this NDP government that we’re having to send people down to the United States to get basic cancer care.”
In May, the B.C. government announced a program to send eligible cancer patients to Bellingham, Wash. for radiation treatment in a bid to cut down wait times amid a shortage of radiation technologists and therapists.
“A lot of our MLAs are hearing from folks that the delayed access to treatment is frankly, people are dying, let’s just be honest about it, and this is very, very worrisome, particularly in rural British Columbia,” Falcon said.
Premier David Eby first announced the cancer travel funding in his speech at the Union of B.C. Municipalities Conference last week.
In a media release at the time the province said the funding would support the Canadian Cancer Society and Hope Air to help more people reach one of B.C.’s six BC Cancer Centres or 41 Community Oncology Network sites.