Edmonton – Last week, it was revealed that the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton was turning away patients with advanced stages of cancer, and now the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary is doing the same.

“Cancer is an illness that will touch virtually every Albertan at some point in their lives, and the current hardship that is being experienced by patients who cannot get the care they need is heartbreaking,” said Liberal Health Critic Kevin Taft. “The Alberta Cancer Board needs to be reinstated to restore timely, efficient and effective cancer care in this province.”

The Alberta government’s only explanation for this latest cancer crisis is that it is due to staff shortages, which is ironic considering that it halted external recruitment of doctors and nurses in April of 2009. “We said very clearly that their short sighted hiring freeze would have serious long term consequences, and we are now seeing the results,” said Taft.

While cancer patients and their families continue to wait for proper treatment, Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky continues to believe that throwing money at the issue, rather than actually solving the problem, is the best course of action. Consider the following:

 Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) expenses for the 2009-10 fiscal year are forecasted to be $10.6 billion.
 AHS’ expenses for the 2008-09 fiscal year were $9.9 billion.
 Overall, during the last fiscal year (2009-10) AHS spent another $700 million, and is still not able to provide cancer care to patients who are in late stages of their illness.

Taft notes that the dissolution of the Alberta Cancer Board has introduced further new inefficiencies and delays – creating potentially life-threatening situations for cancer patients, making the recruitment of health care professionals more difficult, and making it harder than ever to reduce wait times for cancer treatment.

“Alberta clearly needs a more cohesive, efficient, and effective means of delivering cancer care,” said Taft. “The first step in resolving this problem is to reinstate the Alberta Cancer Board.”

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