DOCTORS, IHA SCRAMBLE TO START METHADONE SERVICE

Interior Health Authority recognizes need for methadone clinic in Kelowna
but hesitant to step on B.C. College of Physician and Surgeon's
administrative turf.

A tentative solution is in the works for Central Okanagan methadone
patients.

Details are not yet available but Dr. Jan McIntosh, chief of staff for
Kelowna General Hospital, said a local physician and a member of the
hospital staff are working together on a plan to create a methadone clinic
somewhere in Kelowna.

"We have to get some more physicians but we have an idea of where we will
set up the physical structure," said McIntosh.

Currently, the Central Okanagan does not have a physician to administer the
B.C. Methadone program, which is run by the B.C. College of Physicians and
Surgeons.

Opiate addicts here who want to participate in the methadone maintenance
program must travel to Vernon for weekly or monthly appointments with Dr.
Robert Ross.

However, Ross has served notice he will no longer take on new methadone
patients and will turn away his existing clients from the Central Okanagan
beginning Nov. 1.

Ross told the Capital News that methadone patients from the Central Okanagan
cannot be properly managed from Vernon alone.

His decision affects 150 addicts from the Central Okanagan who currently
travel to Vernon, although Ross estimated another 300 or 400 addicts here
would benefit from having a local program.

Ross also said Kelowna is the only major community in the province that does
not have a methadone prescribing physician.

McIntosh hesitated to put a date on when the clinic will open, but he said
it should be in place well before Ross' deadline. He blamed the bureaucratic
process of joining the B.C. Methadone program plus the unique problems
associated with treating methadone patients as the impediment that has kept
local physicians from signing on before this.

"You have to get your methadone license which is quite an involved process,"
said McIntosh. "Just looking after the patients is different than your
average family practice.

"Up to this point, everybody has been so busy in their practices that it
hasn't been a priority. For the numbers (of patients) they had before, it
just wasn't worth it."

Pat Townsley, addictions manager for the Okanagan Health Service Area, said
what they can do to help establish a program is limited by the fact it is
controlled by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

"The IHA recognizes the need for a methadone physician but we can't tell
them what to do," said Townsley.

"Our role is to facilitate a methadone program by helping them find space
and perhaps provide training.

A local man, now in recovery, who used to be on the methadone program said
the transfer of patients from Ross in Vernon to who ever eventually takes it
on in Kelowna would be a golden opportunity to conduct an outcomes
assessment of the program users.

"We need to make a point of contact, maybe the chemical dependency unit at
the hospital, to find out where they're at," said Russ Cunnington, who up
until 1999 ran four supportive recovery houses in Kelowna.

He's an admitted critic of the methadone program but said local addiction
service providers could garner valuable baseline information about opiate
addiction.

While there's no legal obligation for such an assessment when transferring
patients between physicians, Cunnington said it should be done anyway. "Is
there a moral obligation, I think so," Cunnington added.