METHADONE CLINIC LACKS LOCAL MD SUPPORT

A company that operates methadone clinics in Vancouver and Nanaimo is
opening an office in Kelowna although there is still no local physician
willing to work at it.

Gardell and Associates, which will offer private addictions counseling and
referral services alongside the methadone clinic, has already begun
accepting patients with opiate addictions at its office on St. Paul Street
near Bernard Avenue.

Those patients would previously have had to travel to Vernon for treatment
by Dr. Robert Ross under the B.C. Methadone Program which is administered
by the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons.

However, the Capital News reported in May that Ross would no longer accept
new methadone patients from the Central Okanagan and would stop treating
existing patients from here if local physicians did not make some effort to
establish a local methadone clinic.

While Gardell and Associates will fulfill that need, there is still no
local doctor willing to staff the clinic although the company says it has
at least one local doctor who is interested.

"There is a local doctor who's away in South Africa and won't be back for
six weeks and he's definitely expressed an interest," said Ed Birkenthal,
one of two managing partners of Gardell and Associates.

"Another doctor may possibly move to the Kelowna area, that's why he's
interested."

Birkenthal would not reveal their names until they have confirmed their
participation.

In the meantime, he said the clinic will operate with a doctor from
Kamloops who will travel to Kelowna one day a week until a local doctor can
be found. For his part, Ross said he's satisfied with the solution although
he is critical of the lack of participation by local doctors.

"Something had to happen and it did and that's good but I would prefer to
have seen local doctors do it rather than outsiders," said Ross.

He has been treating opiate addicts for 10 years from his Vernon office and
estimated he had at least 100 patients from the Central Okanagan, but added
there are likely 300 to 500 people here who would benefit from the
methadone program based on the population.

With the clinic in Kelowna opening, Ross said he has already begun telling
some patients they should seek treatment here.

"We won't abandon anybody but we will encourage them to move to their
clinic as soon as possible," said Ross.

"But the vast majority, particularly the unstable ones or the one's who
can't get here easily, will move over."

The Gardell and Associates clinic will initially operate three days a week
from Tuesday to Thursday with an eye to expanding those hours should demand
for both the methadone program and the private addictions counseling
increase, said Birkenthal.

While patients will see the physician and receive their prescription at the
St. Paul Street office, Birkenthal said they will be encouraged to fill the
prescription at a pharmacy in their own neighbourhood.

"We don't want them to get centralized in one area," he said. "We also try
to hook them up with services and get them involved in their own community.
That's what we try to do."

Birkenthal could not estimate how many methadone program clients he might
eventually be treating.

"From what I've heard there's lots of individuals here who have been trying
to get on the (methadone) program but haven't been able to," said
Birkenthal. "Hopefully, we can open some doors for them."