Your paper reported that two new clinics for bladder tests would be opening on the Island on Feb. 18, this after an eight-month wait.

The importance of early detection of cancer is well known. Cancer patients such as I who have been waiting for the clinic to open are now told that the new clinic will not be opening until March 20 or later because the equipment hasn’t arrived from Ontario.

This seems a lame excuse since the Ministry of Health has had eight months to acquire the equipment. I now find I have to travel to Vancouver at my own expense for a vital procedure that takes, at most, 10 minutes. The Vancouver Island Health Authority says it has been working “as quickly as possible” to find a “patient-focused solution.”

VIHA has been accused in the past of dragging its feet, but this latest setback appears to be nothing short of incompetence.

Patrick Lawson

Victoria

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