Local cancer patients don’t have to worry about receiving diluted chemotherapy drugs, officials at the regional hospital say.
The news broke this week that more than 1,000 cancer patients in Ontario and in New Brunswick received lower than intended chemotherapy drugs. The premixed bags that were given to patients contained too much saline solution, giving the recipients less of the medication they were supposed to receive.
Cancer Care Ontario released a statement Thursday stating the error affected 990 patients.
All the hospitals that gave the incorrect dosage were in southern Ontario and all four reportedly removed all cyclophosphamide and gemcitabine received from the drug manufacturer.
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre executive vice-president Mark Henderson said patients in the region weren’t affected because the hospital prepares its own drugs and doesn’t purchase the readymade medication.
“It is absolutely clear that this hasn’t affected any patient in Northwestern Ontario,” he said.
“We did not get the medication from the pharmacy that was involved. We do our own preparation of medication here so we can be absolutely clear that no patient in Northwestern Ontario has been unfortunately under dosed.”
The standard practice at the hospital has at least two pharmacists look over the medication before sending it off. From there a nurse does a final check before infusing the drugs into the patient.
The regional hospital treats about 1,300 patients with chemotherapy per year. He said they don’t have the volume to require them to purchase the readymade drugs.
“There are 13 other locations that we provide medication for,” he added. “So it is all centrally done so there’s very little chance for error.”
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Health Minister Deb Matthews announced Thursday that a third party would look into the incident but no word yet on who that would be.
Henderson suspected that there will be review of hospital policy across the province because of this incident.
