Hospital North Bay 3 2014

 

The Cancer Clinic at the North Bay Regional Health Centre is not closing.

That’s the word, in a joint statement (below), from North Bay Regional Health Centre President and CEO Paul Heinrich and Northeast Regional Cancer Program, Regional Vice President Mark Hartman.

The statement was issued following speculation raised at Queen’s Park on Monday.

They do say there have been discussions related to phasing out radiation oncologists visiting the hospital to provide follow up care.

That would be provided by family doctors, nurse practitioners and through Telemedicine.

They say the change is intended to improve access to care, allowing radiation oncologists to see new patients and provide treatment.

 

Here is the full statement:

The North Bay Regional Health Centre works in partnership with Cancer Care Ontario and the Northeast Cancer Centre at Health Sciences North to ensure access to cancer care is as close to home as possible. We would like to assure you that the NBRHC Cancer Clinic is not closing.
Currently, the NBRHC has a visiting Radiation Oncologist Clinic once a month for follow up visits with cancer patients who have completed radiation treatment. There have been discussions related to phasing out the radiation oncologists visiting NBRHC to provide follow up care. Our plan is to allow for the oncologists to discuss any proposed changes directly with patients and this will transpire over the course of the next year.
It is important to note that this in no way impacts the NBRHC Chemotherapy Clinic which provides over 1,900 chemotherapy treatments annually, the highest activity of any satellite chemotherapy facility in the province.
This change to radiation oncology visiting clinics is intended to improve access to care. With more cancer patients being provided follow up care by family doctors and nurse practitioners in their home community and through the use of the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) this change will provide more capacity for radiation oncologists to see new patients and provide treatment. This is how this type of care is provided in other hospitals across northeastern Ontario.
This change will transpire over the next 12 months with patients being either transferred to primary care, followed by OTN or in rare circumstances, travel to Sudbury.

 

Mark Hartman
Regional Vice President
Northeast Regional Cancer Program

Paul Heinrich
President and CEO
North Bay Regional Health Centre