copyright the Chronicle February 8, 2017
by Joseph Gresser
NEWPORT — A decision by Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center administrators could mean major changes for cancer treatment in the Newport area. While the decision that came out of Hanover, New Hampshire, precipitated the changes, some may have been in the offing in any event, according to Claudio Fort, the CEO of North Country Hospital
He said in an interview on February 4 that he was surprised to get the call from Dartmouth Hitchcock informing him that two doctors who had been traveling north to treat cancer patients at his hospital would no longer do so as of April 13. But Mr. Fort said that increasing costs for the drugs used in chemotherapy and a stricter set of rules from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were already causing the hospital to rethink how it treats cancer patients.
The two physicians, Dr. Sergey Devitskiy and Dr. Ronal Kubica, will continue to practice at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center’s outpost in St. Johnsbury, Mr. Fort said. But they will no longer see patients in Newport.
Dr. Les Lockridge, who set up a private practice in Newport in 2012 after the hospital let him go when it closed its department of oncology and hematology, said Tuesday that he is willing to see what he can do to make up for the loss of the two Dartmouth-affiliated doctors.
Ironically, it was the willingness of Dr. Devitskiy and Dr. Kubica to travel to Newport that enabled the hospital to close its own oncology department.
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