Dr. Bert Kelly, head of the Northern Medical Society says he is not surprised by Health Minister George Abbott’s confirmation this morning that radiation therapy in Prince George will be part of the northern cancer care strategy, but he is disappointed in the time line.

The Minister is saying 5-10 years before the service will be available in Prince George. Kelly says that time frame can be reduced, “I think what he’s giving us is that he’s turned off the red light and given us an amber. Now we’ve got the amber, we’ll have to see 5 to 10 years what we can do with that, I would hope we can get to the green light well inside 5 - 10 years and I think my colleagues will be pushing the agenda.”

Minister Abbott says radiation therapy has never been about the bricks and mortar, rather, it’s been about a full service program that involves prevention programs, screening programs and maintaining and building on the chemotherapy services offered in hospitals throughout the north.  The real key says Abbott, is the expertise “To move forward to a full scale, full service cancer centre in the north, another huge piece is the recruitment and retention of health care professionals“ says the Minister of Health. Abbott says that may be the most challenging part of the entire strategy “They are not easily found, so that is going to be some of the work the B.C. Cancer Agency and Northern Health will be undertaking in the years ahead is to build the base of health human resources, in particular the highly skilled professionals that are needed to operate a full scale, full service cancer centre.”