Hand-delivered Reply from BC Cancer Agency, April 21, 2009

I posted the letter that I had written to BC Cancer Agency at 4:24pm on Monday, April 20th and sometime before noon the following day "a guy" who was not from a courier company (according to my son Zack who was at home recovering from a sinus infection) hand-delivered the following response:



April 21, 2009


Dear Zöe [actually Zoë] :


I am writing to you in response to your letter dated March 26, 2009 [actually dated and hand-delivered on March 24, 2009].

I wanted to thank-you [sic] for your recommendations about our snack trolley and the availability of our recycle bins. It is through comments such as yours that we can provide improved care to all of our patients and families.

I have pulled a team together to review the items sold on the snack trolley with a view to add more nutritious snacks onto the selection.

We are reviewing the purchase of paper cups with safe beverage holders instead of styrafoam cups. Our cafetieria at the Vancouver Centre has already made the change.

Finally, we are adding several blue bins to the patient care areas so that patients and families have an option to use the recycle containers as well as staff.

I am hoping that we can make these changes quickly and efficiently so that you and others can benefit from the positive ideas.

Thank-you [sic] again for your suggestions to us and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions and concerns.


Sincerely,


Sue Fuller Blamey
Director, Quality, Safety and Accreditation

CC. Brian Schmidt, Interim president of BC Cancer Agency
CC. Noorjean Hassam, Director of Regional Operations, Fraser Valley Centre and Abbotsford Centre
CC. Ryna Levy-Milne, Professional Practice Leader, Oncology Nutrition

I do have some comments and given how efficient it was to communicate to BC Cancer Agency via the blog, I will continue. On Tuesday afternoon, just as I was leaving the house, Sue Fuller Blamey called me to follow up on the hand-delivered letter. She noted that she was hesitant to call me given that I had asked her not to and had given her my email address more than once. I let her know again that I preferred written communication.

I note that my offer to single-handedly come up with more nutritious, patient-pleasing snack trolley options was not taken up and that Ms. Fuller Blamey has "pulled a team together to review the items sold on the snack trolley with a view to add more nutritious snacks onto the selection." I refer those on the team to this Medscape article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/577935_7

I apologize to those who don't speak or read medical-ese but I know that this carries more weight for those who do. It basically confirms that sugar is most likely a very bad idea for people who have cancer. I came to that conclusion in 2000 when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer and had my first PET scan. I ingested a sickly-sweet drink that had "nuclear medicine" contained within it. The way the PET scan works is that the "cancer cells gobble up the sugar" and that "lights up" areas in the body that have tumour activity. I fortunately don't have a sweet tooth but that info really has caused me to be very selective about when I choose to ingest sugar.

So...I wonder about BC Cancer Agency "adding" more nutritious snacks as opposed to replacing the very worst kind of crummy chocolate bars. What about just offering organic, free-trade dark chocolate? What about investigating a partnership with Happy Planet? What about contact spud.ca for leads of which local suppliers of delicious and nutritious snacks might be wildly enthusiastic to offer their products to BC Cancer Agency patients and their families. It is my belief that what BC Cancer Agency makes available at their Centres should be representative of what people living with cancer should be eating as part of a healthy diet. Same for the Styrafoam cups...not good for the patients and not good for the landfills. So many cups are used that it is important that they be recyclable.

Also, all those water cups that are used all day, five or six days a week on the chemo floor, where do they go since there are no blue bins on that floor? Also, I am a bit confused at the sentence:
"Finally, we are adding several blue bins to the patient care areas so that patients and families have an option to use the recycle containers as well as staff." The reason that I am confused is that I don't understand why BC Cancer Agency considers recycling to be optional? Isn't it essential?

With due respect,
Zoë