Health minister Adrian Dix presents the business case for a new cancer care centre at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, during an event on Tuesday, April 16. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

cancer care

Business case approved for new $289M Nanaimo cancer care centre

Apr 16, 2024 | 1:31 PM

NANAIMO — A long-awaited project scope and budget is now clear for a pending new cancer centre at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH).

Health Minister Adrian Dix announced details of the project during a Tuesday, April 16 news conference at NRGH, confirming an approximate $289 million dollar project will proceed at the hospital and involve the construction of a three-storey building next to the ambulatory care wing.

Dix said business plans of this scope tend to take between 18 and 24 months, however the province and health partners have done the work in roughly 11.

“That means we go to tender, we go to construction in 2025 and it’s completed with patients in 2028. It means that by 2028, the 1,400 people who need radiation therapy, the 20,000 treatments they need, will be doing them here in Nanaimo and not in Victoria.”

Included in the facility, located near the main NRGH entrance on Dufferin Cres. will be an oncology ambulatory care unit with 12 exam and four consultation rooms, a CT simulator, and a PET/CT diagnostic scanner.

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Office space for physicians and therapists is also planned.

Lower levels of the facility will contain four linear accelerator vaults, which will house the radiation equipment used in cancer treatment.

Dix said the province’s population continues to grow and a bigger healthcare system is required to meet an expected rise in cancer diagnosis.

“You can build them in the same places now, have a bigger cancer centre in Victoria. Or you could see that growing need and population and distribute that to other communities, and that is precisely what we are doing.”

Other additions to NRGH overall are included in the $289 million price tag, including a single-storey addition to the hospital’s ambulatory care building to accommodate a new community oncology network clinic and expanded hospital pharmacy.

The province is also funding a two-storey parkade at the hospital, which will provide 164 new parking spaces.

Dix announced last spring in Nanaimo the approval of a concept plan for a new local cancer centre, outlining the services to be included, following up on conceptual discussions which began in 2021.

At a May 26, 2023 news conference at the Nanaimo VIU campus, Dix expected the new cancer clinic in Nanaimo to cost between $200 and $300 million and would open in 2027.

Earlier this year Dix announced a $359 million new cancer centre in Kamloops would open in 2028, one year later than an earlier projection.

The existing Nanaimo cancer clinic at NRGH is a tier three BC Cancer facility, delivered through the community oncology network, which includes oncology services (chemotherapy) and a pharmacy.

Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation CEO Barney Ellis-Perry called the cancer centre announcement a fantastic day for Vancouver Island.

“The Malahat is such a huge hindrance to the experience of people living with cancer and now to be able to get treatment here in Nanaimo is just a fantastic day for everybody who lives north of the Malahat and that’s over 460,000 people,” Ellis-Perry said.

A pending new cancer care clinic in Nanaimo follows through on a 2020 provincial election campaign promise from former NDP premier John Horgan.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in the province, according to BC Cancer statistics, constituting 24 per cent of all deaths in B.C.

The estimated risk of a British Columbian being diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime is 50 per cent, and dying from the disease is 25 per cent.

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