Cancer treatment centre left holding the bag

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Regional Cancer Treatment Centre is losing money treating Baffin region cancer patients.

Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board (BRHSSB) CEO Jarvis Hoult says reciprocal, inter-provincial agreements on health care just don’t cover the kind of relationship that’s developed between Ottawa’s Cancer centre and the health board.

He says extremely expensive chemotherapy, anti-cancer drugs and an increased work-load have created extra costs for the centre that the BRHSSB hasn’t been picking up.

He says the reciprocal agreement was designed for travelers who happen to get sick while in another province, not for patients being sent south for ongoing care.

The Ottawa Health Services Network Inc., who BRHSSB contracts to provide services to Inuit without health insurance, have allocated $40,000 in their 1999 budget for cancer treatment costs.

Hoult says the BRHSSB will deal with the new cost in its own 1999 budget, to be finalized in April.