BC Cancer Agency, health authority agree to request more doctors The agency that oversees cancer care in British Columbia wants to assure the public it is doing its best to solve the plethora of problems doctors who treat the disease have made known in recent weeks. That includes making a request to the provincial government to hire more oncologists - something those working inside the BC Cancer Agency say is necessary to address growing wait times, plummeting morale and surging staff burnout. Those were among the pledges made by executives from the Provincial Health Services Authority at a meeting they called in response to columns and articles I have written in recent weeks about troubles inside the province's cancer agency. Also attending were two of the oncologists who signed a letter sent to authority president Carl Roy, and obtained by The Globe and Mail, which outlined many of those concerns. Both Arden Krystal, chief operating officer of the health authority, and Nick Foster, chief operating officer of the cancer agency, said that an appeal for funding to hire more cancer specialists was made this week. Neither would say how much money was requested or how many doctors they are seeking to hire. But they conceded that adding 24 oncologists would be enough to begin seriously attacking the wait-time problem that burdens the agency. Each new oncologist costs the health-care system roughly $500,000, which includes salary and the support staff a doctor needs.