A British Columbia cancer doctor says he has no choice but to pack up and move to Ontario because the province failed to move on a promise to expand specialized care here.
In July 2024, Premier David Eby pledged that the province would begin providing gynecologic cancer surgery in Kelowna and the Fraser Health region, with plans to hire three positions in each.
Interior Health has since hired three specialists in Kelowna, but there has been no movement on filling positions in Fraser Health.
Chilliwack-based OBGYN, Dr. Gurdial Dhillon, who was raised in Surrey, went back to university to specialize in female reproductive cancer surgery.
But he said with no opportunities to put his specialized skills to work here in B.C., he’s had to look elsewhere for work.
“I don’t want to, I will wait for a job to open in B.C. so I can apply again when the time comes, but for now I can’t have spent two plus or almost three years training to be a GYN oncologist and not be able to practice,” he told Global News.
The lack of gynecologic cancer surgery in the Fraser Health region means that women seeking treatment must travel to Vancouver to get care.
Dhillon said that while it was personally frustrating not to be able to work in his home region, he was more concerned about his patients who don’t have access to that care.
“There is actually zero GYN oncologists in Fraser Health region, which is the biggest health authority actually in the province and probably the fastest growing one … How can you serve more than two million people and not have a single surgical GYN oncologist?” he said.
“Every patient deserves that sort of comprehensive consultation to be able to speak to those physicians and care providers that are going to provide that care for that complex diagnosis.”
On Monday, Eby acknowledged the service still wasn’t available in the Fraser Heath region, but said the province was still focused on that goal.
“We have big challenges around basic health care in Fraser, and a massively growing population,” Eby said.
“We’re building a new hospital to accommodate that growth — gynecological surgery requires a whole array of additional specialties, so we do have people still travelling for that surgery, to make sure they’re able to get the support the need while we get basic care under control here in Surrey.”
Health Minister Josie Osborne said the expansion of services in Kelowna was the “first phase” of the province’s promise, and that B.C. has nearly doubled the number of gynecological cancer surgeons in the province.
“What that’s done has free up operating room time down south in the Lower Mainland because these women (from the Okanagan and Northern B.C.) are able to get that service in Kelowna,” she said.
Because of that change, Osborne said nine in 10 women in B.C. are now able to get their urgent cancer surgeries within the benchmark wait time of four weeks, up from just four in 10 beforehand.
But she was unable to provide a timeline for when the promised gynecological cancer services would be available South of the Fraser.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when and again, as a fast-growing population, we know that we can expect to see that in the coming years and that the planning is underway right now,” Osborne said.
While there are currently zero female reproductive cancer surgeons in the Fraser Health region, which serves some 2.2 million British Columbians, sources tell Global News neighbouring Vancouver Coastal Health has 11.
That’s resulting in inequitable care, according to BC Conservative health critic Anna Kindy, who is also a physician.
“(Former health minister Adrian) Dix said we need to open more spots, and then backtracked on the spots in Fraser Health. “That is very shortsighted.”
“If we lose somebody like Dr. Dhillon it’s going to be difficult to get somebody of his quality.”
Dhillon, meanwhile, said it will still be a decade before the province adds a new acute tower to Surrey Memorial Hospital where these specialized services are offered.
In the meantime, he said, people in the Fraser region shouldn’t have to travel for care, particularly after receiving a devastating diagnosis.
“When you get a life-changing diagnosis of a reproductive cancer, it takes a toll not just on the patient, but also the family,” he said.
“It’s always, we don’t have resources, but I think you have to be innovative, where we don’t have endless resources for everything, but that’s the job. If we are striving for trying to do the best we can and the safest thing we can, I think the safest care and the best care is always closer to home.”
–with files from Rumina Daya