Ted CLARKE
Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Right now, it's just a hole cut in a concrete bunker.
But by the end of the year, that circular gap will anchor the base of a linear accelerator to deliver life-saving radiation treatments to cancer patients.
The fact Prince George has lacked the ability to provide radiation to treat cancer is the major reason the 5,000 square-metre B.C. Cancer Agency Centre for the North (BCCACN) is being built adjacent to University Hospital of Northern B.C. Once the $69.9 million facility opens late in 2012, it will mean the people of northern B.C. will no longer be required to travel to Vancouver or Kelowna for their radiation therapy.
"People underestimate the impact of having to have a loved one travel to have the kind of care they should have closer to home," said Shirley Bond, MLA for Prince George-Valemount. "I've always believed we deserve to have a complete spectrum of care in the North and this ability to have radiation treatment here closes one of those gaps."
LaDonna Fehr, director for clinical operations in systemic therapy at the BCCACN, and her staff from the oncology clinic at UHNBC toured the cancer clinic on Friday and were blown away by what they saw.
"Our whole team is usually a chatty group, but as we went through the building it got very silent because I think we were overwhelmed with how spectacular it is," Fehr said. "We can't wait to move in.
"I think we're most looking forward to having radiation and systemic [chemo] therapy together and taking care of our patients and serving them in one place right from the start of treatment. Radiation is something that has to be given over multiple days and usually multiple weeks. It is very difficult to go by yourself or take your family with you for five or six weeks and it's expensive.
"It will make a difference for our community and the whole north. It means people from Smithers, Terrace and Quesnel can have treatment Monday to Friday and go home for the weekend."
All patient services at the two-storey new cancer centre will be on the main floor. The building provides bright open spaces that are esthetically pleasing with vaulted ceilings, mountain scenes dressing up glass windows around door frames, and a rooftop outdoor garden that provides a view of the 36-bed Kordyban Cancer Centre Lodge, now under construction.
Treatment rooms feature strategic sightlines for nursing stations that will allow cancer patients to interact with other patients but also provide them with privacy. The systemic treatment area has eight chairs for delivering chemotherapy. There's room for three stretchered patients and a sealed room for patients at risk of infection. There's also a pharmacy equipped with a clean room where chemotherapy treatments will be prepared.
"This is a beautiful building and it represents the most recent thinking and best practices in terms of not only how we build cancer centres but how we can deliver care safely and effectively and ensure it's an environment that is conducive to patient care and optimizing outcomes," said Karim Karmali, chief operating officer of the B.C. Cancer Agency.
Two linear accelerators will be installed in the spring. To contain the radiation, each room is encased in concrete eight feet thick. Neither of the radiation treatment rooms will have a door. The configuration of the entranceway will provide adequate protection and access will be guarded by a laser beam that when tripped, deactivates the radiation source.
The second floor will house administrative offices for staff and counselling rooms for families to connect them with in-house social workers, psychiatrists, and nutritionists. Staff meeting rooms will be equipped with high-definition video equipment to allow teleconferencing with out-of-town colleagues. There's also space for cancer researchers to conduct clinical trials.
"Having a medical school and a teaching hospital directly adjacent to the cancer centre is a major drawing card for physicians, particularly oncologists who are interested in research and teaching and collaborating with their colleagues," Karmali said.
Construction of the cancer centre, built by PCL Construction, started in August 2010. Hal Collier, chief project officer, said the project is on time and within budget. It is part of the $106 million Northern Cancer Control Strategy, a partnership between Northern Health, the B.C. Cancer Agency and the Provincial Health Services Authority to provide prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and supportive and palliative care.
One of the shortcomings in the original plan, identified by Dr. Larry Breckon, head of imaging at UHNBC, is the lack of a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner used to measure the progression of disease and patient response to cancer treatments. There are now only two PET scanners in the province both in Vancouver, but Karmali says Prince George will be getting one.
"We've prepared a plan that's now with government that describes the need for PET technology throughout the province and the North is very much part of that plan," Karmali said. "It's not a question on whether, but when, depending on funding availability."
A public information open house to discuss the new cancer centre is set for next Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Coast Inn of the North.
