Cancer patients in 12 communities in Northern Health will be able to access oncology specialists through a network on videoconferencing systems.

Patients will be able to access initial oncology consultations, follow-up appointments, counseling, dietary counseling, discharge planning, hereditary cancer genetic counseling and receive family 'visits' through the system. Northern Cancer Control Strategy executive director Dr. Ronald Chapman said the system will provide patients throughout the region with access to specialists in Vancouver, the cancer centre under development in Prince George and across Canada.

"One of the key objectives of the Northern Cancer Control Strategy is to increase access in the North," Chapman said. "For some of these communities it'll be the first time they'll be able to access these services."

The first two phases of the $2.4 million project are complete, and the final phase will be completed by the end of December, Chapman said.

Once complete the teleconferencing systems will be available in Prince George, Quesnel, Vanderhoof, Smithers, Terrace, Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Dawson Creek, Hazelton, Fort Nelson, Fort St. John and Queen Charlotte.

Chapman said there isn't the volume of patients in many smaller communities to attract many oncology specialists. But through teleconferencing, patients will be able to limit the amount of travel needed to access those services.

The teleconferencing units themselves are portable, and can be operated from many different rooms within the hospitals they're stationed at.

Recently four of the communities had hospital pharmacists retire or leave, Chapman said. The teleconferencing system has allowed pharmacist Rob Watt in Prince George to assist local pharmacy technicians to continue serving their communities.

"We literally had a crisis in terms of how to serve these communities," Chapman said. "This model is being looked at as how to sustain services in smaller communities."

Watt now serves as the regional oncology pharmacist for Northern Health. Oncology drug prescriptions are faxed to Watt, who checks and reviews them.

If they're in order, Watt tells the local pharmacy technician to prepare the order. The order is then placed under a special, high-definition camera system which allows Watt to check the medications are all in order before they're given to the patient.

"Our geography has pushed us to be creative," Watt said. "I just couldn't have done it before. In those days we relied on pharmacists on site to do that. How does a generalist keep up on all the information about all the oncology medicines?"

In addition to filling prescriptions, the live videoconferencing allows Watt to consult with patients almost as though they are face-to-face.

"In the past I've done it by telephone. (With the video) I can read their emotions. I can tell if they're understanding me," Watt said. "If they have a rash, they can show it to me."

Funding for the teleoncology network was included in the $100 million provincial funding for the Northern Cancer Control Strategy.

"Our goal when we lobbied hard to have a cancer centre in the North was to reduce the need to travel," Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond said. "We're closing that gap and providing better support in northern B.C."