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Interim cancer care centre wi give region a head start in offering permanent services. unding fur an interim Fcancer care venue will give Waterloo Begum an important head slam in establishing the permanent Grand River Regional Cancer Centre in 2002. said the man in charge of the new service. Dr. Brian Dingle, the CEO of the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre (GRRCC). said the Sin-million fund, ing of an interim cancercen- tre, announced last week at the KM' Health Centre, will help get policies and proce- dures in place for when the full-service cancer centre opens its doors. "It's very important that we do that now rather than wait until the cancer centre opens its doors and then try to do it," said Dingle. “We'd be moving very slowly at that point, so if we can do it now we can get the whole thing going-" The head-start funding of the interim cancer centre will allow the hospital to hire two radiation oncologists and supportive care people to try to expand the current outpatient clinic. This would allow Grand River Hospital to provide multidisciplinary care for the current cancer patients so that they can be prepared here for their radi- ation treatments in London. While it will improve local patient care, it will also put the personnel in place for the full radiation treat, ment program that will eventually come Its the K-W Health Centre when the GHRCC is fully functional, "It will allow us to start the planning now for the processes that go on inside rather than sitting and twid- dling our thumbs waiting for a radiation oncologist to come here and help us do it," said Dingle. In the meantime. the interim centre will also allow the local cancer care team to take on more patients here. and use the radiation machinery in London until that service is established locally. In addition to the expanded radiation treat, ment program and systemic treatment program, that focuses on chemdtherapy the new funding will also Be Bun Vanni“ (,1me lg NEIL hem-me hospital expand its supportive fare programA Currently, the hospital only has one social worker and a part-time dietitian to deal with the psycho-social and dietary problems that result from treatment of the disease, The interim program will allow the hospital to hire three supportive care c00r- dinators, two social workers and one full-time dietitian, It's a nod to the more holistic approach that goes into can- cer care these days where the spirit has to be treated as much as the body "That can be very trow bling for a lot of patients but we haven't had the ability or resources to address those issues with these patients," said Dingle. "I'm hoping that by establishing a clinic like this that well start to be able to get those resources in place to do exactly that. "It's something we always should have done, but never had the resources to do. I think we now recognize more and more that the quality ollife that the patient has is equally as important as the fatal outcome." 307 LANCASTER ST, w.. 373 BRIDGE ST. KITCHENER WATERLQO 744-1 1 09 747-0320 POLLOCK AND WILLIAMS PHARMACY Dingle. who was the CONVENIENCE 2',rti'2t>J,rcj5,ff,,r,2,d 'j'aBlr,C':'kLC.s'. Frterhiet4 at the door'. area's only medical oncohr chemotherapy patients. and gist during the low point of 1,800 new radiotherapy local cancer care in 1996- patients in its first year of 1997. said the prognosis for operation. It will expand local patients is decidedly beyond that in following better with the latest round years to become a true of announcements and the regional centre taking care eventual opening of the new of patients from as far away GRRCC. as Owen Sound by 2005 "It certainly looked to me when all six radiation that the whole thing was machines will be up and going to fail apart," said running. "It certainly looked to me that the whole thing was going to fall apart," said Dingle. "But we've managed to go through those terrible depths and managed to come out on the other side with a regional cancer cerr tre. I'm obviously very, very pleased." Construction of the new cancer centre has already begun with plans for the interim centre to be up and running by January at the latest. The interim centre will be able to see 360 to 400 new radiation patients who wouldn't have been seen before in the first year alone, Projections show that by 2002 there will be 3,000 new cancer patients per year in the region due to the contin- ued aging of the biggest seg- ment of our population - the baby boomers. The "new centre will be able to handle 1.500 new Dingle said these are heady times for local cancer care considering the prog- nosis for local cancer care just four short years ago. "The idea of being able to build something like this is just wonderful," he said. Discover some of the world's finest timepieces today at Knar 1mm And cherish your watch as muck as you cherish your time! V6, 4 spd. auto. air, MN, p, window". p. Inch. cruise. (in. stereo, 60/t0 split mm. it, mirrors, We of factory warranty & "rabid: shunt 2000 MALIBU LX 80 King Street South. 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