Cancer patients in British Columbia will no longer be referred to clinics in Bellingham, Wash., for care, Health Minister Josie Osborne announced Monday.
Osborne says the ministry’s decision was not a result of the current U.S.-Canada trade war but due to declining participation in the program and shorter wait times for care in B.C.
“This has always been about delivering more cancer care for people closer to home,” she said.
“The investments we’ve made in more oncologists, more radiation therapy, therapists, improving hospital facilities, that’s what’s been able to enable us to reduce those wait times.”
The B.C. government is now sharing how much it’s costing taxpayers to send cancer patients to the U.S. for treatment. British Columbia has among the highest wait times for radiation therapy in Canada. As Katie DeRosa reports, it’s sparked yet another debate about the role of private health care in the province.
The program, which has permitted 1,107 cancer patients to complete radiation treatment, was introduced to help battle long delays for treatment within B.C. An average of about 50 British Columbians a week received care in Bellingham at the program’s peak in the fall of 2023.
Osborne says it will conclude when contracts expire with the two private U.S. clinics at the end of May — two years after it was first announced.
She says it was planned as a temporary measure to reduce wait times while the province strengthened its own capacity for providing radiation therapy.
The province has paid more than $32 million for the programs as of the end of March 2025.
Osborne says that interest in seeking care through these clinics has declined, coinciding with an improvement in wait times for treatment within B.C.
About 93 per cent of British Columbians are now waiting less than four weeks to start radiation treatment, according to the province, above the national benchmark of 90 per cent.
This is a 24 per cent increase from when B.C. first announced plans to send patients to the U.S. for care in the spring of 2023.
Paul Adams, executive director of the B.C. Rural Health Network, says he is cautious about what the cancellation of this program could mean for the wait list of people awaiting treatment, particularly when work to add regional cancer care centres across the province is not complete.
“Our concern will be how people are going to be treated in a timely fashion,” he said.
John Rustad, the leader of the B.C. Conservatives, echoes the concern.
“If people need the service, they need to be able to get it wherever they can get it,” he said.
“I’m just worried that some patients are not receiving [care], that some patients are slipping through the cracks.”
Around 600 people with breast cancer or prostate cancer have received radiation therapy in Bellingham, Wash., since the program was announced last May. The figures were released Thursday as part of the province’s one-year update into its 10-year cancer plan. As Katie DeRosa reports, while the province has reduced the waitlist size for radiation therapy, critics say relying on the U.S. is an indictment of the cancer system.
Nine patients are still in the process of undergoing treatment at the two private Bellingham clinics; however, the province says they are expected to finish prior to the clinic contracts expiring in May.
The Ministry of Health estimated that about 104 patients would continue to access the program over the next year, had it continued but says the health-care system has the capacity to treat these patients within B.C. instead.
It’s estimated that half of British Columbians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lives, according to B.C. Cancer.
When asked by CBC News, Osborne did not specifically say how cancer care facilities and staffing have changed to meet the demand of patients, but said there have been recruitment efforts targeted at growing the number of oncologists and radiation therapists.
Since April 2023, B.C. Cancer says it has hired 56.6 full-time equivalent physicians. It has also hired about 20 medical oncologists and eight radiation oncologists.
The province currently has six cancer care centres and is working to add more in Nanaimo, Kamloops, Surrey, and Burnaby.
Leanne Kopp, executive director of Island Prostate Centre, said she was surprised to hear about the cancellation of the program. Patients of hers who received treatment through the Bellingham clinics all returned, reporting their satisfaction with the support and care available there, she said.
However, having access to care closer to home — and without having to cross into the U.S. during a time of heightened tensions — can only be a good thing if B.C. can meet the demand, she said.
“If the program is no longer running, and that’s based upon the capacity of patients being able to get treated here in the same amount of time, I see that as a win-win,” said Kopp.
