THE BC United Party said on Tuesday that recently obtained government documents reveal that amid B.C.’s deadly healthcare crisis, the NDP is drastically failing to meet its own targets for cancer care, struggling to send less than a quarter of the designated number of patients to Bellingham, Washington, for radiation therapy that had been promised.

“Half a year after they launched their makeshift plan to send B.C. cancer patients to the U.S., the NDP is only sending 12 patients a week — far short of the 50 patients they committed to,” said Kevin Falcon, BC United Leader. “This program was supposed to be a band-aid solution, a backup plan that was necessary because of the NDP’s inability to provide adequate, timely cancer care to everyone who needs it here in B.C. It’s shocking they can’t even make the backup plan work, especially given the last time B.C. was forced to send cancer patients to the U.S. was under the previous NDP government in the 1990s.”

After six months, the program is managing to serve less than a quarter of the cancer patients the NDP promised it would help. Only 310 patients in total have started treatment in the U.S., including just 14 from Northern Health and zero from Interior Health.

“We know that while the NDP struggles and fails to deliver timely care to British Columbians, hundreds remain on waitlists, with some even choosing to self-fund treatment in the U.S. because they cannot bear to wait any longer for this government to deliver on their promises,” said Shirley Bond, BC United Critic for Health. “Every day, we hear more heart-wrenching stories of pain and neglect. This level of mismanagement is not just frustrating, but it prolongs the distress of cancer patients. People are suffering because the NDP cannot figure out how to deliver basic cancer treatment to the people who need it.”