Interior Health to stop providing cancer medication to pets

B.C.'s minister of health supports a decision by Interior Health to stop preparing cancer treatments for pets in the Kamloops region.

In November, the health authority sent out letters to veterinarians in the city saying it would stop preparing chemotherapy treatments for animal patients because of contractual issuesand the growing human demand within the hospital.

Up until now, Royal InlandHospital has been preparing the treatments in its human facilities.

Health minister says not appropriate

Vets like Dr. Matt Nicol from Riverside Small Animal Hospital were given untilJan. 2, 2017 to find another source for the drugs and so far he hasn't been able to come up with any alternative sources to treat his patients.

"I understand that's not their main line of business," he said.

"In terms of costs, we've spoken with a couple of pharmacies who said 'gee we'd like to help you, but it costs $70,000 to install one of those rooms.'

Nicolsaysthe kind of facilities needed to prepare the cancer drugs are only available at publiclyfunded hospitals because of the high cost and safety requirements ofset up.

B.C.Health Minister Terry Lake said Royal Inland Hospitalis reaching the maximum ability to look after human patients.

He said given that, it's not appropriateto expect the hospital to provide for veterinary patients as well.

"As an animal lover and a former practicing veterinarian, I really don't think it's appropriate that human health facilities used in this manner," said Lake.

Lake said veterinarians in Kamloops will have to find another source of chemotherapy drugs. He's suggesting they could band together to build their own dispensary, but Nicol saysthe cost is too high for the small number of animals they treat.

'Stuck' for options

Currently, Nicol sees a couple of pets a week who have cancer, but only a few of them are suitable candidates for chemotherapy.

He saysthere is not a huge number of animals that need the care, but for those patients, the disease has a huge impact on their lives and some owners will want to seek out treatments.

"We're not big enough to be Vancouver, but we're too big not to have cancer patients who want treatment," he said.

"If we were Vancouver, then we'd be big enough to have a specialist hospital."

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He's hoping the health authority will reconsider the decision to stop providing treatment at the start of January, even if it just means extending the deadline by a number of months.

"We're absolutely stuck in terms of finding an alternative provider," said Nicol.

Interior Health said on its Facebook page that it is meeting with local vets to see how itcan support them through this transition.

With files from Daybreak Kamloops

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