NEWPORT — This week North Country Hospital received notice from the Norris Cotton Cancer Center that they will be discontinuing providing oncology outreach services at North Country Hospital as of April 13, 2017.
Staff from North Country Hospital and Norris Cotton say they will be working closely with patients to ensure their care will not be interrupted through this transition.
Patients of Dr. Kubica and Devitskiy may continue to receive care and treatments with them at their other clinics in St. Johnsbury, Hanover, or Littleton, New Hampshire.
Existing patients of Dr. Leslie Lockridge will be able to complete their current course of treatment at North Country Hospital and they will be coordinating with him to determine what services they will be able to continue to offer going forward.
“This news came as somewhat of a shock, but I am not surprised, as hospitals across the country are evaluating all their programs to improve quality while reducing costs,” said North Country CEO Claudio Fort. “Often, this requires consolidation of services to achieve greater economies of scale. As a result of this development, we will be re-evaluating what cancer services and treatments we will still be able to provide after April 13th.”
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Director of Hematology/Oncology Amy Stansfield, RN, MBA, says that their social worker will be working closely with patients and the North Country Hospital clinic staff to do everything possible to assist them through this transition.
