The provincial government has announced a new 10-year plan to better prevent and detect cancer, and make access to cancer care easier for all British Columbians.
The province said it will spend $440 million to expand cancer care teams and service hours, introduce new payment structures to attract and retain staff, as well as invest in new research and technology.
It will also focus on rural and remote communities by increasing funding for residents having to travel for cancer care, and building cancer centres in more communities so people won’t have to travel as far.
This announcement comes after the province announced a $5-billion operating surplus in November. In its throne speech earlier this month, the NDP government promised “record new investments” in housing and health care.
Of the $440 million, the first $270 million will be distributed over the next three years, with the first yearly $90 million to be made available April 1, 2023.
The remaining $170 million has been designated for one-time funding, including grants to the B.C. Cancer Foundation.
The B.C. government’s new cancer care plan aims to have patients seeing oncologists and receiving treatment sooner. (iStock/Getty Images)
More than 30,000 British Columbians were newly diagnosed with cancer in 2021. That same year, 11,000 people in B.C. died as a result of the disease.
It is estimated that 50 per cent of B.C. residents will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.
“Nearly every British Columbian has been affected by cancer in some way, through their own diagnosis or that of a family member or friend,” Premier David Eby said.
“It is one of the greatest health-care challenges we face.”
Over the next three years, the province plans to expand cervical, lung and hereditary cancer screening, including at-home tests for HPV (human papillomavirus) to help identify cervical cancer. Ultimately, the province says it wants to eliminate cervical cancer altogether in B.C.
The plan also includes expanding hours for treatment and reducing wait times for surgery.
The province says it wants to add more Indigenous patient support positions, to ensure more culturally safe care for Indigenous individuals and families.
Oncologists to get a raise
Oncologists in B.C. will get a raise from $410,000 a year to $472,000, which Dix says will make B.C. the top-paying province for cancer care physicians in the country.
When asked how long current wait times are for cancer care, Dix did not answer, but acknowleged there are both systemic and acute strains on the system.
However, Dr. Kim Chi, an oncologist with B.C. Cancer, said they aim to have 90 per cent of patients seen by an oncologist four weeks after being referred. The optimal time period for people receiving treatment varies depending on the type of treatment they’re receiving, he said.
“These are achievable goals,” Chi said.
“It does take time to recruit people, it does take time to treat people. Although there may not have been an immediate change, this will happen over time.”
Chi, who has been with B.C. Cancer for more than two decades, said this plan and investment are “unprecedented.”
“This is really a defining moment that puts B.C. on a transformational path as leaders in cancer care.”
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
