Cancer Outreach Clinic Planned for Yarmouth

Cancer patients in the Yarmouth area may soon be able to receive care closer to home. Staff from Cancer Care Nova Scotia and Yarmouth Regional Hospital are meeting today to discuss reopening a cancer outreach clinic there.

"We recognize the difficulty many cancer patients face in making the long trip to Halifax for assessment and consultation," said Dr. Andrew Padmos, commissioner of Cancer Care Nova Scotia. "One of our goals is to make cancer care in Nova Scotia more patient-centred. Outreach clinics go a long way to ease the stress of cancer patients who live some distance away from a major centre."

The outreach clinic would not add new facilities or funds beyond travel expenses. Tentative plans for the Yarmouth clinic include monthly visits by a medial oncologist, as well as specialists in radiation oncology, haematology, nursing and other members of the full-care team a cancer patient might see in the course of treatment. New patients may be assessed, patients on treatment seen and case management consultations would be organized with community health care professionals.

There was a cancer outreach clinic in Yarmouth from 1994 to 1997. The possibility of more outreach clinics is now under discussion with institutions in other areas. Priorities for clinics will be based on the difficulty patients have in reaching major cancer centres.

Outreach clinics are now possible because of successful recruitment efforts by Cancer Care Nova Scotia, the Department of Health, the QEII Health Sciences Centre and the Dalhousie Medical Centre. Together, these health care partners have filled the cancer specialist vacancies in the province. By September 2000, Nova Scotia will have a full complement of medical oncologists, including nine at the QEII and two at the Cape Breton Cancer Centre.

Cancer Care Nova Scotia has a mandate to co-ordinate, strengthen and evaluate cancer services in Nova Scotia through integrated research, education and treatment programs that are patient-centred, cost-effective and based on sound evidence.