Chemotherapy treatments in Grand Falls and Saint-Quentin: Network ready to cooperate in order to find viable solutions to maintain services

Bathurst, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 – Vitalité Health Network welcomes the Department of Health’s proposal to find solutions to maintain the delivery of oncology services at the Grand Falls General Hospital and Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Joseph de Saint-Quentin.

The Network reiterates that this difficult decision had been made due to the very low volume of treatments in both facilities, making it impossible to meet current Canadian standards to ensure that patients receive quality and safe care. The main challenges have to do with maintaining qualifications and certification of the nursing staff, transporting chemotherapy medications in a timely and safe manner as well as the on-site availability of medical staff trained in oncology.

We remain open to pursue discussions with the Department of Health and our community partners to find solutions

According to Network President and Chief Executive Officer, Gilles Lanteigne, no viable alternatives have been identified to date. “We remain open to pursue discussions with the Department of Health and our community partners to find solutions that would satisfy all required conditions and therefore maintain services in Grand Falls and Saint-Quentin,” he stated. “We received a letter to that effect yesterday from the Honourable Benoît Bourque, and the Network is committed to providing its full cooperation to quickly examine the whole issue and see if solutions are conceivable.” The Network namely wants to consider the feasibility of making increased use of specialized telehealth services as well as ways to support patients that will need to travel to receive services.

According to the Network, it is important to restate that chemotherapy treatments are complex, specialized health care that require a high level of organization and competence from nursing and medical staff, and from pharmacy departments. “The Network is a leader in terms of cancer treatment in New Brunswick with the Dr. Léon-Richard Oncology Centre in Moncton and its four satellite centres that provide chemotherapy treatments throughout the territory to reduce travel distances for our patients,” Mr. Lanteigne stated. “The challenge is therefore to provide these services in smaller communities in a viable manner while observing the high quality and safety standards that our patients are entitled to expect.”  

Satellite oncology centres in the Network: Edmundston Regional Hospital, Campbellton Regional Hospital, Chaleur Regional Hospital and Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus RHSJ†.  These centres report to the Dr. Léon-Richard Oncology Centre.